High-throughput image and video compression

ABSTRACT

A system implements multiple coding formats for coding pixels within a picture. The formats may be selected based on one or more of the input picture and encoding variables. The coding formats may have varying chroma sampling densities. Filtering may be applied to convert among the various formats or to convert a sampled input to a specific chroma sampling density. The format associated with various groups within a coded bitstream may be changed to adapt to evolution of the one or more variables or inputs.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation-in-part of and claims priority to patent application Ser. No. 14/180,226, filed 13 Feb. 2014, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 9,805,442, which claims priority to provisional application Ser. No. 61/764,772, filed 14 Feb. 2013, and is a continuation-in-part of and claims priority to patent application Ser. No. 14/044,627, filed 2 Oct. 2013, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 9,883,180, which claims priority to provisional application Ser. No. 61/709,316, filed 3 Oct. 2012, provisional application Ser. No. 61/764,807 filed 14 Feb. 2013, provisional application Ser. No. 61/764,891, filed 14 Feb. 2013, provisional application No. 61/770,979, filed 28 Feb. 2013, provisional patent application Ser. No. 61/810,126, filed 9 Apr. 2013, provisional application Ser. No. 61/820,967, filed 8 May 2013, and provisional application Ser. No. 61/856,302, filed 19 Jul. 2013 each of which is entirely incorporated herein by reference. This application also claims priority to provisional application Ser. No. 61/832,547 filed 7 Jun. 2013.

This application is related to co-owned and co-pending application Ser. No. 13/158,061 filed 10 Jun. 2011 and titled “Method and System for Zero Overhead Parallel Entropy Decoding”, which is entirely incorporated herein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This disclosure relates to image processing. This disclosure also relates to compression and decompression techniques for image transmission and display.

BACKGROUND

Immense customer demand has driven rapid advances in display technologies, image analysis algorithms, and communication technologies, as well as the widespread adoption of sophisticated image display devices. As just a few examples, these devices range from DVD and Blu-ray players that drive high resolution displays for home theaters, to the now ubiquitous smart phones and tablet computers that also have very high resolution displays. Improvements in image processing techniques will continue to expand the capabilities of these devices.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows an example architecture in which a source communicates encoded data to a sink.

FIG. 2 is an example of an encoder.

FIG. 3 shows a parallel processing architecture.

FIG. 4 shows an example of a predictor and quantizer.

FIG. 5 shows example sample locations.

FIG. 6 shows examples of a coded format for compressed samples.

FIG. 7 shows an example of a virtual buffer model.

FIG. 8 shows an example decoder.

FIG. 9 shows example logic for encoding.

FIG. 10 shows example logic for decoding.

FIG. 11 shows an example encoding and decoding system.

FIG. 12 shows an example of a picture and a picture parameter set.

FIG. 13 shows another example of an encoder.

FIG. 14 shows another example of a decoder.

FIG. 15 illustrates samples sets for block search.

FIG. 16 illustrates an example of indexed color history.

FIG. 17 shows an example of a portion of a slice using substream multiplexing.

FIG. 18 shows an example of substream demultiplexing logic.

FIG. 19 shows an example of substream multiplexing logic.

FIG. 20 shows an example of slice timing and delays.

FIG. 21 shows an example of 3×1 partial SADs that form 9×1 SAD.

FIG. 22 shows an example of original pixels used for encoder flatness checks.

FIG. 23 shows an example encoder.

FIG. 24 shows an example decoder.

FIG. 25 shows an example indexed color history for a parallel decoder.

FIG. 26 shows example logic for preforming parameter look-up.

FIG. 27 shows example logic for determining the short-term rate control adjustments and determining long-term rate control parameter values.

FIG. 28 shows example slice timing logic.

FIG. 29 shows example logic for reading a line storage buffer.

FIG. 30 shows an example bitstream reordering based on the prefixes within the bitstream.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 shows an example architecture 100 in which a source 150 communicates with a sink 152 through a communication link 154. The source 150 or sink 152 may be present in any device that manipulates image data, such as a DVD or Blu-ray player, a smartphone, a tablet computer, or any other device. The source 150 may include an encoder 104 that maintains a virtual buffer 114. The sink 152 may include a decoder 106, memory 108, and display 110. The encoder 104 receives source data 112 (e.g., source image data) and may maintain the virtual buffer 114 of predetermined capacity to model or simulate a physical buffer that temporarily stores compressed output data. The encoder 104 may also evaluate the encoded symbols for transmission at a predetermined bit rate. The encoder 104 may specify the bit rate, as just two examples, in units of bits per pixel, or in units of bits per unit of time.

The encoder 104 may determine the bit rate, for example, by maintaining a cumulative count of the number of bits that are used for encoding minus the number of bits that are output. While the encoder 104 may use a virtual buffer 114 to model the buffering of data prior to transmission of the encoded data 116 to the memory 108, the predetermined capacity of the virtual buffer and the output bit rate do not necessarily have to be equal to the actual capacity of any buffer in the encoder or the actual output bit rate. Further, the encoder 104 may adjust a quantization step for encoding responsive to the fullness or emptiness of the virtual buffer. Buffer fullness is a metric that may apply to any buffer including rate buffers (e.g., physical memory, and/or other buffers), virtual buffers, and buffer models. An exemplary encoder 104 and operation of the encoder 104 are described below.

The decoder 106 may obtain the encoded data 116 from the memory 108. Further, the decoder 106 may determine the predetermined virtual buffer capacity and bit rate, and may determine the quantization step that the encoder 104 employed for encoding the encoded data 116. As the decoder 106 decodes the encoded data 116, the decoder 106 may also determine the fullness or emptiness of the virtual buffer 114 and adjust the quantization step used for decoding. That is, the decoder 106 may track the operation of the encoder 104 and determine the quantization step that the encoder 104 used. The decoder 106 decodes the encoded data 116 and provides video data 118 to a display 110. In some implementations, the quantization step is not present in the encoded data 116, saving significant bandwidth. Examples of decoders 106 and encoders 104, and their operation are described below.

The memory 108 may be implemented as Static Random Access Memory (SRAM), Dynamic RAM (DRAM), a solid state drive (SSD), hard disk, or other type of memory. The communication link 154 may be a wireless or wired connection, or combinations of wired and wireless connections. The encoder 104, decoder 106, memory 108, and display 110 may all be present in a single device (e.g., a smartphone). Alternatively, any subset of the encoder 104, decoder 106, memory 108, and display 110 may be present in a given device. For example, a Blu-ray player may include the decoder 106 and memory 108, and the display 110 may be a separate display in communication with the Blu-ray player.

FIG. 2 shows an example of an encoder 200. The encoder 200 encodes the video data 202. The video data 202 may take the form of a series of successive frames 202-0, . . . , 202-x, for example. The frames 202-0, . . . , 202-x may take the form of 2-dimensional matrices of pixel components, which may be represented in any color space such as the Red/Green/Blue (RGB), YUV, Luminance Y/Chroma Blue Cb/Chroma Red Cr (YCbCr), Luminance Y/Chroma Orange/Chroma Green (YCoCg), Alpha, Red, Green, Blue (ARGB), or other color space. Each of the pixel components may correspond to a spatial location. While the matrices may be overlaid to form a picture, each of the pixel components in the matrices are not necessarily co-located with pixel components in other matrices.

Each pixel component may be encoded with a value comprising a predetermined number of bits, such as eight, ten, or twelve bits per pixel component. The encoding may employ, as examples, 10 bit YCbCr 4:2:2, 8 bit YCbCr 4:2:2, 10 bit YCbCr 4:4:4, 8 bit YCbCr 4:4:4, 8 bit ARGB 32, or 8 bit RGB 24 encoding. The encoder 200 may receive the pixel components of the frames in raster scan order: left to right, top to bottom. In certain implementations, the video encoder 200 may receive the pixel components at a predetermined rate. The predetermined rate may correspond to the real-time frames per second display rate.

The video encoder 200 may include an input, predictor & quantizer 204, a mapping and variable length coder (VLC) 206, rate controller 208, a rate buffer 210, and memory (e.g., DRAM) 212. The video encoder 200 receives and encodes the pixel components. While the number of bits representing pixel components coming into the video encoder 200 may be constant (per pixel component), the number of bits representing each coded pixel may vary dramatically. The encoder 200 may increase the number of bits representing coded pixels by reducing the quantization step, or decrease the number of bits by increasing the quantization step.

The input, predictor & quantizer 204 predicts and quantizes the pixel components, resulting in quantized residuals. In certain implementations, the input, predictor, & quantizer 204 may predict a pixel component from previously encoded and reconstructed pixel components in the same frame, e.g., 202-0. The mapper and variable length coder 206 codes the quantized residuals, resulting in coded bits.

The input, predictor & quantizer 204 may use a predetermined initial quantization step for quantizing a predetermined amount of data, such as video pixel data. The mapping and variable length coder 206 signals the rate controller 208, which in turn instructs the input, predictor & quantizer 204 to increment, decrement, or leave unchanged the quantization parameter, as will be described in more detail below.

The mapping and variable length coder 206 may code the quantized sample values using their natural 2's complement binary values. The number of bits that the mapping and variable length coder 206 uses to code each value may be determined dynamically by a combination of recent history of coded values of the same pixel component and a prefix value associated with each unit of samples.

The rate controller 208 determines whether to increment, decrement, or leave unchanged the quantization step. The rate controller 208 may perform the quantization step analysis, e.g., by simulating or modeling a buffer of predetermined capacity that it evaluates at a predetermined bit rate. The modeled buffer may be referred to as a virtual buffer. If the virtual buffer is becoming full, the rate controller 208 may increase or increment the quantization step. If the virtual buffer is becoming empty, the rate controller 2098 may decrease or decrement the quantization step. Further implementations are described below with respect to rate control for slices.

The rate controller 208 may determine the fullness of the virtual buffer by, e.g., counting the bits that are used to encode the input received over a given number of input samples and subtracting the product of the predetermined bit rate, in bits per sample, and the number of input samples. The number of input samples may be as few as one sample.

A decoder may decode the encoded data starting with the initial quantization step. As the decoder decodes the encoded data, the decoder may also determine the fullness of the virtual buffer. The decoder may determine the fullness or emptiness by observing the amount of bits that were used to encode an amount of decoded data corresponding to the number of input samples. The decoder may then determine the quantization step decision that was made at the encoder 200. Accordingly, the encoder 200 does not need to explicitly transmit the quantization step to the rate controller or any other logic in the decoder.

FIG. 3 shows a parallel processing architecture 300. The demultiplexer 302 receives the input pixel components 304, and separates each pixel component into constituent parts, e.g., Alpha 306, Red 308, Green 310, and Blue 312. The prediction & quantization blocks 314, 316, 318, and 320 are associated with a particular one of the constituent parts of the pixel components. There may be any number of such blocks and they may operate in parallel. In the case of a format with four pixel components, such as ARGB, each prediction & quantization block processes a particular component part. When the architecture 300 processes pixel components with fewer constituent parts than prediction & quantization blocks, then some of the prediction & quantization blocks need not operate for the processing of those pixel components. The prediction & quantization blocks 314-320 may provide quantized residuals to a particular one of component mappers 322, 324, 326, and 328. The component mappers 322-328 may also operate in parallel.

The mappers 322-328 provide mapped quantized residuals ‘E’ to a multiplexer 330. The multiplexer 330 multiplexes the mapped quantized residuals ‘E’ into a residual stream 332 that is provided to the variable length coder 334. Alternatively, there may be a variable length encoder associated with each component mapper, and the multiplexer 330 may multiplex the variable length encoded quantized residuals output by the multiple variable length encoders.

FIG. 4 shows an example of a predictor and quantizer 400. The predictor and quantizer 400 includes a buffer 402, first delay logic 404 (implementing, e.g., six sample delay), a prediction engine 406, and second delay logic 408 (implementing, e.g., 3 sample delay). The buffer 402 may store the previous reconstructed image line. The prediction engine 406 receives the current pixel component ‘x’, reconstructed pixel components ‘w’, ‘t’, ‘s’, ‘g’, ‘c’, ‘b’, ‘d’, and ‘h’ from the previous line from the first delay blocks 404, and reconstructed pixels from the left on the current line, ‘k’, ‘r’, ‘f’, ‘a’ from the second delay blocks 408.

In order to use reconstructed pixel components, instead of the input pixel components, the quantizer 410 may provide quantized residuals E′ to an inverse quantizer 412. The inverse quantizer 412 inverse quantizes the quantized residuals. The reconstructed pixels ‘Rx’ are generated from the quantized residuals E′ and the predicted values from the prediction engine.

The prediction engine 406 may include an Edge prediction engine 414, LS prediction engine 416, Left prediction engine 418, and ABCD prediction engine 420. As described above, the prediction engine 406 predicts the current pixel component ‘x’ from reconstructed pixel components ‘w’, ‘t’, ‘s’, ‘g’, ‘c’, ‘b’, ‘d’, and ‘h’ from the previous line, and reconstructed pixels from the left on the current line, ‘k’, ‘r’, ‘f’, ‘a’, thereby resulting in a residual E″ representing the pixel component ‘x’.

The operation of the prediction engine 406 will now be described with reference to FIG. 5, which shows example pixel components 500. The prediction engine 406 may adaptively predict pixel components from neighboring reconstructed pixels of the line above, and the left pixels of the same line of the pixel to be predicted. For example, the prediction engine 406 may predict pixel ‘x’ from a combination of any of the reconstructed pixels ‘t’, ‘s’, ‘g’, ‘c’, ‘b’, ‘d’, ‘h’, ‘k’, ‘r’, ‘f’, and ‘a’.

The spatial prediction adaptively chooses an output from one of the four candidate prediction engines: the Edge prediction engine 414, LS prediction engine 416, Left prediction engine 418, and ABCD prediction engine 420 as its predictor for the current pixel component. The choice may be made according to the prediction errors determined for one or more previous reconstructed pixel components, considering the candidate predictors. This operation may be the same in both the encoder and decoder, and no prediction control information needs to be included in the encoded data. The decoder may implement an identical prediction mode algorithm and deduce the prediction mode used by the encoder. Once a predictor is selected, the value of each sample is predicted using the selected predictor. The residual value E″ is calculated as the difference between the predicted value and the actual sample value.

LS Prediction Engine 416

The LS prediction engine 416 may produce a predicted value Px of the current sample ‘x’ according to the following:

if (c >= max(a, b))    Px = min(a, b); else {    if (c <= min(a, b))       Px = max(a, b);    else Px = a + b − c;}

ABCD Prediction Engine 420.

The ABCD prediction engine 420 may produce the prediction value Px=(a+b+c+d+2)/4. This is an average of four neighboring samples.

Left Prediction Engine 418

The Left prediction engine 418 may use the reconstructed value of the left pixel of the current sample as its prediction value. In other words, Px=‘a’.

Edge Prediction Engine 414

The Edge prediction engine 414 may employ more neighboring pixels than the LS prediction engine 416. The Edge prediction engine 414 may detect an edge at several possible angles around the current sample ‘x’, and use the edge information in the prediction. The Edge prediction engine 414 may search, as examples, for directions of an edge that are horizontal, vertical, 45 degree, 135 degree, about 22.5 degrees and about 157.5 degrees. The Edge prediction engine 414 may be implemented in two stages. The first stage is edge detection. The second stage is edge selection.

Some options may be specified for the prediction function. The use of the reconstructed sample value ‘a’, which is immediately to the left of ‘x’, may be disabled by configuring the Edge prediction engine 414 with a parameter such as NOLEFT=1. Avoiding the use of sample ‘a’ may allow more time for the prediction, quantization and inverse quantization path to function, which may be an advantage in high throughput systems where circuit timing may make it difficult to reconstruct sample ‘a’ quickly. The use of the reconstructed sample values ‘a’ and ‘f’, which are the two samples immediately to the left of ‘x’, may be disabled by configuring the Edge prediction engine 414 with a parameter such as NOLEFT=2 (also referred to as NO2LEFT). This allows even more time for the prediction, quantization and inverse quantization path to function. When circuit timing needs three clock cycles for prediction, quantization and inverse quantization, the use of NOLEFT=2 facilitates a throughput of one sample per clock.

The individual prediction engines from the four listed above may be selectively enabled and disabled. For certain classes of content, better performance may be obtained by utilizing a subset of the prediction functions. When predicting samples along the top and left edges of an image, for example, the Left prediction engine 418 may be employed, as specified below.

NOLEFT=1 Option

When NOLEFT=1, the reconstructed sample value ‘a’ in the LS prediction engine 416, left prediction engine 418, and ABCD prediction engine 420 is replaced by its prediction Pa using the reconstructed samples ‘f’, ‘g’, and ‘c’ according to the following:

if (ABS(g−c) > ABS(g−f)*3)    Pa = c; else {    if (ABS(g−f) > ABS(g−c)*3)       Pa = f;    else Pa = (f+c+1)/2;}

NOLEFT=2 Option

When NOLEFT=2, the reconstructed sample values ‘f’ and ‘a’ in the LS prediction engine 416, left prediction engine 418, and ABCD prediction engine 420 are replaced by their predictions Pf and Pa using the reconstructed samples ‘r’, ‘s’, ‘g’, and ‘c’. The prediction of ‘a’ may use the same approach as in NOLEFT, except that ‘f’ is replaced by Pf according to the following: Pf=(r+g+s+c+2)/4;

Edge prediction engine with NOLEFT=0, NOLEFT=1, NOLEFT=2

When NOLEFT=0, the left sample is used in the prediction, and the following may be applied to the edge detection:

  if ( (2*ABS(a−c) > 6*ABS(c−b)) && 2*ABS(a−c) > 6*ABS(c−g) && 2*ABS(a−c) > 6*ABS(a−f) )   {     edge1 = 0;     strength1 = ABS(c−b);   }  else if ( 2*ABS(b−c) > 6*ABS(c−a) && 2*ABS(c−d) > 6*ABS(c−a) )   {     edge1 = 1;     strength1 = ABS(c−a) ;   }   else   {     strength1 = max_strength;     edge1 = 7;  }  if ( 2* ABS(a−g) > 6*ABS(a−b) && 2* ABS(a−g) > 6*ABS(f−c) )  {     edge2 = 2;     strength2 = ABS(a−b);  }  else if( 2* ABS(a−b) > 6*ABS(a−g) && 2* ABS(a−b) > 6*ABS(s−f))  {     edge2 = 3;     strength2 = ABS(a−g) ;  }  else  {     strength2 = max_strength;     edge2 = 7;  } if ( 2*ABS(a−g) > 6*ABS(a−d) ) {     edge3 = 4;     strength3 = ABS(a−d) ;  }  else if ( 2*ABS(a−b) > 6*ABS(a−s) )  {     edge3 = 5;     strength3 = ABS(a−s) ;  }  else  {     strength3 = max_strength;     edge3 = 7;  }

When NOLEFT=1, the left sample is not used in the prediction, and the following may be applied to the edge detection:

  if ( (2*ABS(f−g) > 6*ABS(c−g)) && 2*ABS(f−g) > 6*ABS(s−g) && 2*ABS(f−g) > 6*ABS(r−f) )   {     edge1 = 0;     strength1 = ABS(c−g);   }  else if ( 2*ABS(g−c) > 6*ABS(f−g) && 2*ABS(b−g) > 6*ABS(g−f) )   {     edge1 = 1;     strength1 = ABS(f−g);   }   else   {     strength1 = max_strength;     edge1 = 7;   }   if ( 2* ABS(f−s) > 6*ABS(f−c) && 2* ABS(f−s) > 6*ABS(r−g) )   {     edge2 = 2;     strength2 = ABS(f−c);   }   else if ( 2* ABS(f−c) > 6*ABS(s−f) && 2* ABS(f−c) >   6*ABS(r−t) )   {     edge2 = 3;     strength2 = ABS(s−f);   }   else   {     strength2 = max_strength;     edge2 = 7;   }  if ( 2*ABS(s−f) > 6*ABS(f−b) )  {     edge3 = 4;     strength3 = ABS(f−b);   }   else if ( 2*ABS(f−c) > 6*ABS(f−t) )   {     edge3 = 5;     strength3 = ABS(f−t);   }   else   {     strength3 = max_strength;     edge3 = 7;   }

When NOLEFT=2, the two left samples are not used in the prediction, and the following may be applied to the edge detection:

  if ( (2*ABS(r−s) > 6*ABS(g−s)) && 2*ABS(r−s) > 6*ABS(t−s) && 2*ABS(r−s) > 6*ABS(k−r) )   {     edge1 = 0;     strength1 = ABS(g−s);   }  else if ( 2*ABS(s−g) > 6*ABS(r−s) && 2*ABS(c−s) > 6*ABS(s−r) )   {     edge1 = 1;     strength1 = ABS(r−s);   }   else   {     strength1 = max_strength;     edge1 = 7;   }   if ( 2* ABS(r−t) > 6*ABS(r−g) && 2* ABS(r−t) > 6*ABS(k−s) )   {     edge2 = 2;     strength2 = ABS(r−g);   }   else if ( 2* ABS(r−g) > 6*ABS(t−r) && 2* ABS(r−g) >   6*ABS(k−w) )   {     edge2 = 3;     strength2 = ABS(t−r);   }   else   {     strength2 = max_strength;     edge2 = 7;   }  if ( 2*ABS(t−r) > 6*ABS(r−c) )  {     edge3 = 4;     strength3 = ABS(r−c);   }   else if ( 2*ABS(r−g) > 6*ABS(r−w) )   {     edge3 = 5;     strength3 = ABS(r−w);   }   else   {     strength3 = max_strength;     edge3 = 7;   }

The parameter ‘max_strength’ may be defined as the largest possible absolute difference between two samples. This parameter may be related to the pixel data format, e.g., for 8-bit data, max_strength=255, for 10-bit data, max_strength=1023. The same edge selection logic may be applied in each case of NOLEFT=0, NOLEFT=1 and NOLEFT=2, except that the sample value ‘a’ may be replaced by its prediction Pa when NOLEFT=1 or NOLEFT=2, and the sample value ‘f’ may be replaced by its prediction Pf when NOLEFT=2:

  if (strength1 <= strength2)   {      if (strength1 <= strength3)      {         edge = edge1;         strength = strength1;      }      else      {         edge = edge3;         strength = strength3;      }   }   else   {      if (strength2 <= strength3)      {         edge = edge2;         strength = strength2;      }      else      {         edge = edge3;         strength = strength3;      }   }   if (strength == max_strength || edge == 7)      Px = (a+c+b+d+2) / 4; else   {      switch(edge)      {      case 0: Px = a;      case 1: Px = b;      case 2: Px = d;      case 3: Px = c;      case 4: Px = h;      case 5: Px = g;      }   }

Predictor Selection

A Unit may be considered to be a logical grouping of adjacent samples of the same component. For example, the Unit size may be selected to be equal to two. A Unit size may be the number of samples comprised by a Unit. In alternative implementations, the Unit size may be selected to have a value of one, three, four or another value. In some embodiments, when the Unit size is selected to be equal to two, for every pair of samples of one component, a selected set (up to all) of the candidate predictors may be evaluated using the previous pair of samples of the same component, and the predictor that performs best for that previous pair is selected for the current pair. The selection of a predictor may be made on boundaries that do not align with Units. There may be certain exceptions under which the set of candidate predictors is restricted, for example when samples to the left or above are not available, or for example when one or more predictors are not enabled.

For the first pair of samples of the image, e.g., the two samples on the left edge of the top line, the left prediction engine 418 may be selected as the predictor. Further, for the first pair of samples of each line other than the first, the LS prediction engine 416 may be selected. Sample values that are not available for use in prediction may be assigned a pre-determined value, for example one half of the maximum range of sample values.

For other pairs of samples, the predictor may be selected according to the estimated prediction errors of the left pair of samples, which may be calculated by all four predictors. When the reconstructed value of the current sample ‘x’ is found, the estimated prediction error for the current sample can be calculated as follows: err_sample=ABS(x′−Px)

In the above equation, Px is the predicted value of the current sample from each of the four predictors. The prediction error of one predictor is the sum of err_sample over both samples in a pair of samples for a predictor. The predictor with the smallest prediction error is then selected as the predictor for the next pair of samples of the same component.

Note when NOLEFT=1, the prediction error of the left sample is not available. Assuming the current sample is ‘x’ in FIG. 5, then if NOLEFT=0, the prediction engine selected by the left pair, the samples of ‘f’ and ‘a’, is used for the current sample pair. If NOLEFT=1, the predictor selected by the smallest prediction error of the available left pair may be used, e.g., the samples of ‘r’ and ‘f’ if ‘x’ is the second sample of the pair, or samples of ‘r’ and ‘k’ is ‘x’ is the first sample of the pair. If NOLEFT=2, the predictor selected by the smallest prediction error of the samples of ‘r’ and ‘k’ may be used if ‘x’ is the first sample of the pair, or samples of ‘k’ and its immediately left one if ‘x’ is the second sample of the pair. The residual or error value E″ may be determined as: E″=x−Px.

The reconstructed sample value of ‘x’, for use in future predictions, may be obtained as follows:

x′ = Px + E′ * QuantDivisor; if (x′ < 0) x′ = 0; else if (x′ > MAXVAL) x′ = MAXVAL;

The value QuantDivisor is defined below. MAXVAL is the maximum value that can be coded by the uncompressed video sample word size, e.g., 1023 for 10 bit video, and 255 for 8 bit video. In one implementation, Cb and Cr are non-negative integers.

The operation of the mapper and variable length coder 206 is described with reference to FIG. 6, which shows examples of sample units 600, which are also referred to as Units. The mapper and variable length coder 206 may use entropy coding to code sample values using their natural 2's complement binary values. The number of bits used to code each value may be determined dynamically by a combination of the recent history of coded values of the same component and a prefix value associated with each Unit 605 of samples. In certain implementations, a Unit 605 comprises two samples 610 of a particular component type, e.g., Y, Cb or Cr, or Alpha, R, G or B. In some implementations, the Cb and Cr samples are coded together in one Unit. The same set of components may be used for the prediction of the number of bits.

Each Unit 605 of samples has a Unit sample size. A Unit sample size may be the size in bits of each of the samples in a Unit. The Unit 605 sample size may be large enough to code each of the samples contained in the Unit 505, and it may be larger. The size of one sample may be the number of bits used to code the sample's value in 2's complement. For example, a value of 0 has a size of 0, a value of −1 has a size of 1, a value of −2 or 1 has a size of 2, a value of −4, −3, 2 or 3 has a size of 3, and so on.

A Unit 605, may have a maximum sample size, which is the maximum of the sizes of all the samples in the Unit 605. A Unit 605 may also have a predicted size. In one implementation, if the predicted size is greater than or equal to the maximum sample size, then the Unit 605 sample size is equal to the predicted size. In one implementation, if the maximum sample size is greater than the predicted size, then the difference, which is always non-negative, is coded in the prefix value 612, and the maximum sample size may be used as the Unit 605 sample size. In another implementation, if the maximum sample size is different from the predicted size, then the difference, which may be positive or negative, is coded in the prefix value 612. The prefix value may use unary coding, e.g., for implementations with non-negative prefix values, the value 0 has the code 1 (binary), the value 1 has the code 01, the value 2 has the code 001, and so on. The Unit sample size is the sum of the predicted size and the prefix value 612. For 10 bit video, the greatest possible sample size is 10, and the smallest possible predicted size is 0, so the greatest possible prefix value is 10, which occupies 11 bits i.e. 0000 0000 001. For implementations with signed prefix values, signed prefix values may be unary coded.

The predicted size may be a function of the sizes of previously coded samples. In one implementation, the predicted size is the average, with rounding, of the sizes of the samples of the same component of the previous two samples, e.g., of the previous Unit, given that the Unit size is 2. If the Unit size is 4, the predicted size may be the average of the sizes of the four samples of the same component of the previous Unit. If the Unit size is 3, the predicted size may be generated by the average of the sizes of the last two samples of the same component of the previous Unit, thereby avoiding division by 3. Alternatively, if the Unit size is 3, the predicted size may be generated as a weighted sum of 3 samples of the previous unit of the same component. The weights may be, for example, (¼, ¼, ½).

For example, if a component of an image, after quantization, is such that the size of the samples is 2 for many consecutive samples, then the predicted size is 2, and the prefix value is 0. Therefore the prefix code is ‘1’, and each sample is coded using 2 bits, and a Unit of two samples has a total of 5 bits. In the event of a transient causing a sudden increase in the sample size, the prefix value codes the increase in the sizes. In the event of another transient causing a sudden decrease in the sample size, the prefix value may be 0 and the Unit sample size may be equal to the predicted size, which may be in excess of the sizes of the samples in the Unit. Therefore each sample may be coded with a number of bits equal to the predicted size, even though their own sizes are less. Following a transient, in the absence of another change in sample sizes, the Unit sample size and predicted size converge again. This technique results in very efficient coding of samples, given that the sizes of the samples may change from Unit to Unit, particularly when the sizes do not frequently change very rapidly.

The delta size Unit variable length coding (DSU-VLC) scheme facilitates efficient encoding and decoding at high speed in hardware, in part because it does not rely upon VLC tables. The number of bits in a Unit to be decoded is determined from the prefix value (counting zeros) and the predicted size, which can be determined before encoding or decoding the current Unit. It is feasible to encode or decode one Unit per clock, and faster decoding approaches are also feasible. Encoding can encode multiple Units in parallel, for greater throughput. The Unit size may be selected to be greater than two for various reasons. For example, larger Unit size may be chosen where the usage imposes a throughput requirement that cannot practically be met with a Unit size of 2, in which case a Unit size of 3 or 4 may be used.

Referring again to FIG. 4, the quantizer 410 quantizes the residuals E″, which in general includes the case of lossless coding, using a quantization parameter Quant. Quant may take on values ranging from 0, signifying lossless, to the value that corresponds to the highest value of QuantDivisor[ ] (see below). With an exemplary set of values of QuantDivisor and QuantOffset shown below, the value of Quant ranges from 0 to 17.

The quantizer 410 may perform quantization on the residual value E″ as follows:

if (Quant = 0)    E′ = E″; else    if (E″ >= 0)       E′ = (E″ + QuantOffset[Quant]) / QuantDivisor[Quant];    else E′ = (E″ − QuantOffset[Quant]) / QuantDivisor[Quant];

where division may be with truncation, as, e.g., in the ‘C’ language.

The set of divisors may be:

int QuantDivisor[ ]={1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 24, 28, 32, 48, 64, 128, 256};

The associated set of offsets, the rounding constants, may be:

int QuantOffset[ ]={0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 13, 15, 23, 31, 63, 127};

In this approach, there are 4 odd-valued divisors (3, 5, 7 and 9), and seven that are products of one of these odd-valued divisors and one of five other values, each of which is a power of 2:2**N. As a result, in one implementation, the quantization function supports 4 odd-valued divisors.

The use of this particular set of values of QuantDivisor[ ] provides good compression with low complexity. Note that division by the odd numbers can be performed in hardware using multiplication by one of a small set of optimized constant values.

In other implementations, the divisors may be selected such that they do not have odd factors. For example:

int QuantDivisor[ ]={1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048, 4096};

int QuantOffset[ ]={0, 0, 1, 3, 7, 15, 31, 63, 127, 255, 511, 1023, 2047};

Rate Control

The value of Quant is determined via a rate control technique, which may be performed identically in both the encoder and decoder. The rate control technique may base its decisions on a measure of the activity of the most recently coded predetermined number of pixel components and on the fullness of the buffer model. The predetermined number may be, for example, 3, 2, or some other number. The value of Quant may be updated once per coded predetermined number of pixel components.

FIG. 7 shows an example of a virtual buffer model 700. The virtual buffer model 700 is in communication with a bitstream source 702, the rate controller 208, and a bitstream consumer 706. The virtual buffer model 700 models the behavior of a rate buffer where the output bit rate is a specified bit rate. The specified bit rate may be in units of bits per pixel or per group of pixels, or it may be in other units such as bits per unit of time, such as bits per second. The bitstream consumer 706 may model the consumption of bits at a specified rate. The bitstream source 702 may be the output of the mapper and variable length coder 206, for example. A group of pixels may comprise a predetermined number of pixels, for example two, three, four, or some other number.

Bits enter the virtual buffer model 700 when they are created. For example, the number of bits used to code a Group is added to the model 700 when the Group is coded. Bits leave the virtual buffer model 700 according to a pre-determined schedule. For example, the schedule may specify a constant rate in units of bits per group. The virtual buffer model 700 may be implemented as an accumulator 708, in which one value is added and other value is subtracted per Group. Alternatively, the schedule of removing bits from the virtual buffer model 700 may be in units of bits per second. Alternatively, the times at which bits are added to or subtracted from the buffer model 700 may be finer or coarser than a Group, and may use a construct other than a Group, such as a sample, a macroblock, a slice or a picture. In order to model the behavior of a First In First Out (FIFO) buffer, the fullness of the virtual buffer model 700 may be clamped to 0 when subtracting a number of bits from the fullness that would otherwise result in a negative value of fullness.

When the output bit rate used in the virtual buffer model 700 is less than or equal to the actual bit rate at which bits are removed from the rate buffer in an encoder, and the rate controller 704 ensures that the virtual buffer model 700 does not overflow, the rate buffer also does not overflow. More generally, the encoder may use the virtual buffer model 700 to manage the rate of creation of bits by the encoder such that another virtual buffer model, which may be applied later to the encoder's bit stream, does not overflow or underflow. The bit rate at which bits leave the virtual buffer model can be changed at any time to any supported value. If the actual rate at which bits leave the rate buffer equals or approximates the rate at which bits leave the virtual buffer model, the encoder's bit rate can be set to any supported bit rate with effectively instantaneous response. Because the rate control uses the virtual buffer model to manage the rate of creation of bits, the rate control function does not need to monitor the rate at which bits leave the rate buffer.

In one implementation, the encoder and decoder perform identical rate control (RC) decisions, which control the value of the quantizer, or Quant, without the encoder transmitting any bits that specifically indicate quantization control. The rate control may depend on the activity, measured by the sizes of the samples, of the previous Group, as well as fullness of the virtual buffer model, and a measure of the strength of an edge, if any, in the preceding samples. The rate control may use several configurable thresholds. Units 605 are organized into Groups 710. Groups 710 are utilized to organize the samples to facilitate the buffer model and rate control. In another exemplary implementation, the decoder does not perform the same rate control decisions as the encoder, and the encoder transmits bits which indicate at least a portion of the quantization control.

In one implementation, the encoder, including the rate controller 208, ensures that the virtual buffer model 700 never exceeds a defined maximum fullness, while choosing quantization levels to maximize overall subjective image quality. For some images and bit rates, both may be achieved relatively easily, while for others, the buffer fullness may vary and approach or reach the size of the virtual buffer model 700 at times and the quantization may vary and may reach the maximum allowed value at times.

The virtual buffer model 700 may represent a FIFO of predetermined size, BufferSize. The value of BufferSize may be chosen according to the particular application. A larger size generally facilitates better compression for a given bit rate and image contents, and vice versa. A larger size also implies a larger amount of space available in a physical rate buffer, as well as potentially increased latency. In an exemplary implementation, at the start of a picture, the buffer model 700 is initialized to be empty. Alternatively, the virtual buffer model 700 fullness may be retained from one picture to the next, or it may be initialized to some other value.

As each Group 710 of samples is encoded, the number of bits used to code the Group is added to the accumulator in the virtual buffer model 700. After each Group is coded, a number equal to the budget of bits per Group, e.g., the specified bit rate, is subtracted from the accumulator, with the result clamped to 0 to enforce non-negative fullness. In implementations where the decoder mimics the rate control of the encoder, the same operation happens in the decoder: as each Group is decoded, the number of bits that the Group occupies is added to the model and the specified bit rate, e.g., the budget number of bits per Group, is subtracted, with the result clamped to 0. This way the encoder and decoder buffer models track exactly for every Group in each picture. The rate controller 208 can guarantee that the buffer fullness never exceeds the defined maximum value, e.g., the buffer size, by adjusting the value of Quant.

In one implementation, at the start of each picture, the quantization value Quant is initialized to 0, corresponding to lossless coding. In another implementation, the value of Quant is initialized to a non-zero value. The value of Quant may be adjusted dynamically to avoid overflowing the buffer model while maximizing the compressed image quality. The rate control algorithm may facilitate encoding of difficult images at low bit rates with minimum visible quantization errors, as well as encoding difficult images at higher bit rates with no visible quantization error.

In one implementation, the activity level of each Group is measured. The activity level may be the maximum quantized residual size of each Unit in the Group, times the number of samples in a Unit (e.g., either 2, 3, or 4), plus 1 (corresponding to a prefix value of 0), summed over all of the Units in the Group. The quantized residual sizes are after quantization using the current value of Quant. As an example of 2 samples per unit and 3 units per group, the numbers of bits for sample 0 and 1 are SampleSize[0] and SampleSize[1] respectively. Assume the maximum of the two samples for unit 0 is MaxSizeUnit[0]=MAX(SampleSize[0], SampleSize[1]), then the activity level for the group is RcSizeGroup=MaxSizeUnit[0]+1+MaxSizeUnit[1]+1+MaxSizeUnit[2]+1. Another parameter that calculates the real number of bits coded in the last Group, e.g., BitsCodedCur, in example shown below, is also used in determining whether the value of Quant should be increased, decreased, or left unchanged.

The following describes control of the quantization parameter, Quant, for an example where the virtual buffer size is 16 Kbits. In this example, “MaxBitsPerGroup” represents the pre-determined data rate in bits per group. Offset[ ] is a set of values that adjust the “target_activity_level” according to the fullness of the buffer model, which is represented by “Buffer_fullness”, and which is compared to various threshold values represented by BufTh1, BufTh2, and so on:

// Set target number of bits per Group according to buffer fullness if(Buffer_fullness < BufTh1) {    Target_activity_level = MaxBitsPerGroup + offset[0];    MIN_QP = minQP[0];    MAX_QP = maxQP[0]; } else if(Buffer_fullness < BufTh2) {    Target_activity_level = MaxBitsPerGroup + offset[1];    MIN_QP = minQP[1];    MAX_QP = maxQP[1]; } else if(Buffer_fullness < BufTh3) {    Target_activity_level = max(0,  (MaxBitsPerGroup + offset[2]));    MIN_QP = minQP[2];    MAX_QP = maxQP[2]; } else if(Buffer_fullness < BufTh4) {    Target_activity_level = max(0,  (MaxBitsPerGroup +    offset[3] ));    MIN_QP = minQP[3];    MAX_QP = maxQP[3]; } else if(Buffer_fullness < BufTh5) {    Target_activity_level = max(0,  (MaxBitsPerGroup +    offset[4] ));    MIN_QP = minQP[4];    MAX_QP = maxQP[4]; } else if(Buffer_fullness < BufTh6) {    Target_activity_level = max(0,  (MaxBitsPerGroup + offset[5]));    MIN_QP = minQP[5];    MAX_QP = maxQP[5]; } else if(Buffer_fullness < BufTh7) {    Target_activity_level = max(0,  (MaxBitsPerGroup + offset[6]));    MIN_QP = minQP[6];    MAX_QP = maxQP[6]; } else if(Buffer_fullness < BufTh8) {    Target_activity_level = max(0,  (MaxBitsPerGroup + offset[7]));    MIN_QP = minQP[7];    MAX_QP = maxQP[7]; } else if(Buffer_fullness < BufTh9) {    Target_activity_level = max(0,  (MaxBitsPerGroup + offset[8]));    MIN_QP = minQP[8];    MAX_QP = maxQP[8]; } else if(Buffer_fullness < BufTh10) {    Target_activity_level = max(0,  (MaxBitsPerGroup + offset[9]));    MIN_QP = minQP[9];    MAX_QP = maxQP[9]; } else if(Buffer_fullness < BufTh11) {    Target_activity_level = max(0,  (MaxBitsPerGroup +    offset[10]));    MIN_QP = minQP[10];    MAX_QP = maxQP[10]; } else if(Buffer_fullness < BufTh12) {    Target_activity_level = max(0,  (MaxBitsPerGroup +    offset[11]));    MIN_QP = minQP[11];    MAX_QP = maxQP[12]; } else if(Buffer_fullness < BufTh13) {    Target_activity_level = max(0,  (MaxBitsPerGroup +    offset[12]));    MIN_QP = minQP[12];    MAX_QP = maxQP[12]; } else if(Buffer_fullness < BufTh14) {    Target_activity_level = max(0,  (MaxBitsPerGroup +    offset[13]));    MIN_QP = minQP[13];    MAX_QP = maxQP[13]; } else {    Target_activity_level = max(0,  (MaxBitsPerGroup +    offset[14]));    MIN_QP = minQP[14];    MAX_QP = maxQP[14]; }

The 14 values of threshold (BufTh1 through 14) of buffer fullness in units of bits may be set for a virtual buffer model size of 16 Kbits (16,384 bits) as {1792, 3584, 5376, 7168, 8960, 10752, 12544, 13440, 14336, 15232, 15456, 15680, 15960, 16240}. The 15 values of offsets (offset[0 to 14]) for Target_activity_level may be set as {20, 10, 0, −2, −4, −4, −8, −10, −10, −10, −10, −12, −12, −12, −12}.

At any range of buffer fullness, which is bounded by two consecutive thresholds, e.g., BufTh1<=Buffer_fullness<BufTh2, there is a range of Quant, specified by MIN_QP and MAX_QP, allowed for the rate controller 208 to use. This helps to regulate the variation of Quant to avoid over-quantization when the buffer level is low, as well as avoiding the use of too many less significant bits that may not help with visual quality when the buffer fullness is high. The pair of parameters, MIN_QP and MAX_QP, associated with each range of buffer fullness levels are selected respectively from an array of 15 values of minQP[0 to 14], with example default values of {0, 0, 1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 8, 8, 8, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17}, and an array of 15 values of maxQP[0 to 14] with example default values of {2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17}, according to the buffer fullness level.

The value of Quant is adjusted according to the measured activity levels, the target activity level, the allowed Quant range specified by MIN_QP and MAX_QP, and the strength of a strong edge. When there is a strong edge, the activity level normally increases significantly if the value of Quant stays fixed. The rate control algorithm detects the presence of a strong edge by examining the activity level of the current Group and that of the preceding Group as well as the associated values of Quant. When a strong edge is detected, the rate control algorithm does not increase the value of Quant immediately after the presence of the strong edge, in order to avoid potential quantization noise that is more readily visible in smooth areas that may follow a strong edge. This factor may be observed for example in some cartoon content. The rate control may increase the value of Quant at the second group after a strong edge. One parameter that serves as a threshold in detecting strong edges is defined as EdgeFactor in the pseudo code below.

Some implementations avoid excessive fluctuation of Quant around a high quantization value, which could result in visible high frequency quantization noise in some images. These implementations regulate the increase of Quant so that Quant does not increase for two consecutive Groups of pixels when the value of Quant is already high, with certain exceptions. However, the decrease of Quant may be allowed as soon as the measured activity level is low. These adjustments are controlled by two parameters defined as QuantIncrLimit[0] and QuantIncrLimit[1] in the example below; their default values may be set to 11. In the following example, RcSizeGroup represents the activity level, BitsCodedCur represents the actual number of bits used to code the most recently coded Group, and RcTgtBitsGroup represents the Target_activity_level. RcTgtBitOffset[0] and RcTgtBitOffset[1] are offset values that adjust the range of the target activity level. EdgeFactor is a parameter that is used to detect a strong edge. The quantization step of the last Group is Quant, which is saved as QuantPrev before it is assigned the value for the current Group.

The operation of the Quant adjustment may be implemented as follows:

if ( RcSizeGroup < (RcTgtBitsGroup − RcTgtBitOffset[0]) && BitsCodedCur < (RcTgtBitsGroup − RcTgtBitOffset[0])) {  QuantPrev = Quant;    Quant = MAX(MIN_QP, (Quant−1)); } else if (BitsCodedCur > RcTgtBitsGroup + RcTgtBitOffset[1]) {  if  ((QuantPrev  ==  Quant  &&  RcSizeGroup  * 2  <  RcSizeGroupPrev  * EdgeFactor)  ||   (QuantPrev  <  Quant  && RcSizeGroup  <  RcSizeGroupPrev  * EdgeFactor && Quant < QuantIncrLimit[0]) || (Quant < QuantIncrLimit[1] )  )    {  QuantPrev = Quant;      Quant = MIN(MAX_QP, (Quant+1));} } else QuantPrev = Quant;

When the buffer fullness approaches the maximum allowed level, the above Quant value determined by the activity level may be replaced by max_QP:

if (Buffer_fullness>=BufTh_overflow_avoid)

-   -   *Quant=max_QP;

Where BufTh_overflow_avoid is a programmable parameter.

FIG. 8 shows an example decoder 800. The decoder 800 includes a rate buffer 802, a variable length decoder (VLD) 804, a predictor, mapper and inverse quantizer (PMIQ) 806, and a rate controller 808. The decoder 800 may be located in the same device or in a different device as the encoder, and may receive the bitstream input from any source, such as a memory or communication interface. For example, the decoder 800 may be located remotely from the encoder and receive the input bitstream via a network interface.

The rate buffer 802 may be a FIFO memory which temporarily stores compressed data bits after the encoder 800 receives them. The rate buffer 802 may be integrated with the rest of the video decoder or it may be located in another module, and it may be combined with another memory. The size of the rate buffer 802 may be at least as large as the virtual buffer used in the video encoder. For example, where the video encoder uses a 16 kbits virtual buffer, e.g., 2048 bytes, the rate buffer may be the same size, i.e., 2048 bytes or larger. Ready-accept flow control may be used between the rate buffer 802 and the VLD 804 to control that when the rate buffer 802 is empty the decoding operation is suspended until there is data available in the rate buffer 802.

The fullness of the rate buffer 802, at any given time, may not be the same as the fullness of the virtual buffer model. In part this is because the decoder virtual buffer model mimics the operation of the encoder virtual buffer model, and not the operation of the decoder, and the buffer model operates with the specified number of coded bits/pixel times the number of pixels in a Group being removed from the buffer model every time a Group is decoded, rather than the actual schedule at which bits arrive at the decoder. The transmission of compressed bits may be modeled as being exactly synchronized with the decompression function, while in actual operation the input of the rate buffer 802 may be read from memory more quickly or more slowly than exactly this rate. This is one reason that the rate control, above, operates on the buffer model and not on the rate buffer fullness.

The input to the VLD 804 is a compressed bit stream 812. The compressed bit stream 812 may include a series of Groups. The Groups may include a set of Units. Each Unit may have a Prefix and some number of samples, for example two, three or four samples. The VLD 804 operation is the inverse of the variable length coder (VLC) 206 function. Since the input to the VLD 804 is a stream of bits, e.g., a stream of VLC coded samples, part or all of the VLD operation may be performed sequentially. Some of the VLD functionality may be pipelined, however.

In one implementation, the VLD 804 uses a Unit size of 2, i.e., 2 samples per Unit. The choice of Unit size may be the same for both the encoder and decoder for any given image. The Unit size is generally an attribute of the encoded bit stream.

The VLD 804 decoding operation entails determining the actual sizes (e.g., number of significant bits) of the samples in the previous Unit of the same component as the one currently being coded, and creating a predicted Unit sample size from this information. This analysis may be pipelined. The VLD 804 may decode the Prefix of each unit, which may be unary coded. The decoded Prefix value is added to the predicted sample size value. The resulting sample size information indicates how many bits for each sample are contained in the Unit. The VLD 804 extracts from the incoming bit stream a number of bits equal to the prefix size plus the determined sample size times the number of samples per Unit. Once the VLD 804 extracts these bits, they are demultiplexed and processed by subsequent decoding steps which may be pipelined.

Similar to the VLC, the number of bits spent for the current Group as well as the activity level of the current Group are calculated and passed to the rate controller 808 for rate control. The VLD 804 generates the values of RcSizeGroup and BitsCodedCur and passes these to the rate controller 808.

Once the coded samples are extracted, they are converted to a suitable format for subsequent processing. For example, they may be converted to an 11 bit 2's complement signed format, with sign-extension of negative sample values. These constant-width sample values are demultiplexed into individual component streams of samples, and sent to the Predictor, Mapping and I-Quant (PMIQ) block 806.

FIG. 9 shows example logic 900 for encoding. The logic 900 initializes the quantization step to zero (902) and receives a unit of pixel components (904). The logic 900 also performs quantization using the quantization step and encodes the quantized values (906). The logic 900 measures the fullness of the virtual buffer (908) and adjusts the quantization step based on the measured fullness (910). If the encoding is finished (912), flow may return to (902) or terminate altogether; otherwise flow may continue at (904).

FIG. 10 shows example logic 1000 for decoding. The logic 1000 initializes the quantization step to zero (1002). The logic 1000 decodes a coded unit and updates the virtual buffer (1004). The logic 1000 also dequantizes using the quantization step parameter (1006), and measures the fullness of the virtual buffer (1008). Further, the logic 1000 may adjust the quantization step based on the measured fullness (1010). The logic 1000 determines whether decoding of the frame is finished (1012), and if so, flow may return to (1002) or terminate. Otherwise, the flow may return to (1004).

Operation Description

The description above provides an example architecture that supports additional specific image processing operations. An introduction to some of these operations is provided next. Additional architectural implementations that support the image processing operations are also discussed further below.

FIG. 11 shows an example encoding and decoding system 1100, based on the example of FIG. 1. The system 1100 supports real time operation. Source data 112, which may be uncompressed, enters the encoder 104, for example in real time and raster scan order. The encoder 104 compresses incoming pixels to form a bitstream and temporarily stores portions of the bitstream in its rate buffer 210. The output of the rate buffer 210 is the slice layer of a Display Stream Compression (DSC) bitstream 1106. The DSC bitstream 1106 may be conveyed, e.g., in real time from the encoder 104 to the decoder 106. In that regard, a wide variety of communication links 1104 may convey the DSC bitstream 1106 to the decoder 106. Underlying the communication links 1104 may be a wide variety of transport layers, and the communication links 1104 may include local high speed busses, WiFi links, Ethernet links, satellite links, cellular (e.g., 3G or 4G/LTE) links, as examples.

The decoder 106 receives the DSC bitstream 1106 into its rate buffer 802, which temporarily stores portions of the DSC bitstream 1106. The VLD 804 decodes bits from the rate buffer 802 to obtain uncompressed pixels. The VLD 804 outputs the uncompressed pixels, e.g., in real time and in raster scan order, for the display 110. The image output from the decoding process may have the same format as the image input to the encoding process.

The DSC bitstream may include of a sequence of frames coded using a picture layer syntax. The picture layer syntax may include a PPS (picture parameter set) and a slice syntax. The PPS contains parameters that the decoder 106 uses for correct decoding of the slice layer. FIG. 12 shows an example of a PPS 1200.

The picture layer may operate in units of entire pictures. A picture may be, as examples, a frame in the case of a progressive format video, or a field in the case of an interlaced format video. Each picture may include an integer number of contiguous, non-overlapping, identically-sized, rectangular slices. In the encoder 104, slice coding is specified via a slice layer. In the decoder 106, each slice may be decoded independently without reference to other slices. There may be one slice per line or multiple slices per line. In the case of multiple slices per line, bits from the slices covering one line are multiplexed in the DSC bitstream 1106 via a slice multiplexing process described below.

Each slice may include a set of groups, and each group may be a set of three consecutive pixels in raster scan order. Further, the encoder 104 may encode each group with multiple (e.g., three) entropy codes, one for each component, and each of which may be a specific type of variable length code (VLC). Furthermore, some groups may include one or more additional bits which signal specific decoding operations.

FIG. 13 shows another example of an encoder 1300. The DSC encoding process generates bitstreams that may precisely conform to the independently specified bpp (bits per pixel) rate. The bpp rate may be specified in terms of bits per pixel time, which may be algorithmically specified, as the unit of a pixel time is the same at both the input and output of the encoder 1300. The number of bits that code each pixel, or group of pixels, may vary considerably. In the encoder 1300, the rate buffer 1302 facilitates converting the variable number of bits used to code each group into, e.g., a constant bpp rate. To that end, the encoding process includes the rate controller 1304.

The encoder 1300 may include color space conversion logic 1306, e.g., RGB input to reversible YCoCg conversion logic. An input buffer 1308 stores the converted input. Prediction, quantization, and reconstruction (PQR) logic 1310 implements prediction of sample values and generation of residual values. The prediction, quantization, and reconstruction (PQR) logic 1310 may include multiple (e.g., three) predictors: modified median adaptive prediction (MMAP), mid-point prediction (MPP), and block prediction (BP). The PQR logic 1310 also implements quantization of residual values and reconstruction of sample values. An indexed color history (ICH) 1312 is also present, as is VLC coding logic 1314 that may implement entropy coding using delta size unit variable-length coding (DSU-VLC). The input buffer 1308 provides samples to the flatness determination logic 1318. Note also that substream multiplexing logic 1320 is present to prepare a multiplexed output stream to the rate buffer 1302.

FIG. 14 shows another example of a decoder 1400 configured to decode image data that the encoder 1300 has encoded, and produce image output 1418. The decoder 1400 may implement the inverse of the operations that were performed by the encoder 1300. The decoder 1400 may include a rate buffer 1402, substream demultiplexer 1420, and VLC entropy decoding logic 1404 for DSU-VLC. The decoder 1400 also includes PQR logic 1406 that may implement multiple (e.g., three) predictors: modified median adaptive prediction (MMAP), mid-point prediction (MPP), and block prediction (BP). The PQR logic 1406 also performs inverse quantization of residual values and reconstruction of sample values. An ICH 1408, rate control logic 1410, and color space conversion logic 1412 is also present. Flatness indications may be signaled in the bitstream from the encoder, and provided to the rate control logic 1410.

The encoding process may produce display stream coded bitstreams that conform to an HRD (hypothetical reference decoder) constraint. The HRD may be idealized model of a decoder that includes a model of a rate buffer, which should neither overflow nor underflow.

The DSC bitstream and decoding process facilitate decoding 3 pixels per clock cycle in practical hardware implementations. In other implementations, the decoding process may process 1, 3, or other numbers of pixels per clock. Additional throughput in terms of pixels per clock may be increased via encoding and decoding multiple slices in parallel, which is facilitated by utilizing multiple slices per line in the DSC bitstream.

Color space conversion logic 1306, 1412

RGB video input to the encoding process may be converted to YCoCg for subsequent processing. The reversible form of YCoCg may be used, and as such the number of bits per each of the two chroma components is one greater in YCoCg than it is in RGB. In the case of YCbCr input, no color space conversion need be performed. The inverse color space conversion is performed in the decoding process.

PQR Logic 1319, 1406

Each group of pixels is coded using either predictive coding (P-mode) or ICH mode. For P-mode there are three predictors: modified median-adaptive prediction (MMAP), block prediction (BP), and midpoint prediction (MPP). The encoder and decoder may select MMAP, BP, or MPP automatically, using the same algorithm in each, without signaling the selection in the DSC bitstream.

In the encoder 1300, each sample is predicted using the selected predictor. The original sample value is compared to the predicted value, and the difference is quantized. Each quantized error is then entropy-coded if P-mode is selected. The encoder 1300 also performs a reconstruction step wherein the inverse-quantized error is added to the prediction so that the encoder and decoder may use the same reference samples.

In decoder 1400, the samples are predicted using a selected predictor. The residual value, which is obtained from decoding the DSC bitstream, is inverse quantized and the result added to the prediction, forming the reconstructed sample value.

The median-adaptive predictor (MAP) may be the prediction method that is used in JPEG-LS. However, a modification is made to allow the decoder 1400 to process three pixels in a group in parallel and to improve coding. The modified median-adaptive predictor (MMAP) facilitates hardware implementations for decoders running at 3 pixels per clock cycle. The MMAP predicts a current sample value as a function of reconstructed previously coded samples to the left and above the current sample. The encoder 1300 and decoder 1400 may use identical sets of reconstructed samples for this purpose, and hence the MMAP produces the same results in both the encoder 1300 and the decoder 1400. MMAP may be the default predictor, and is effective at predicting sample values in most conditions.

The MPP predicts a current sample from a value that is approximately at the mid-point of the valid range for the sample. The MPP has the benefit of bounding the maximum size of the residual. MPP may be selected in place of MMAP when the number of bits required to code the samples in of one component of a group would be greater than or equal to the bit depth for that component minus the quantization shift.

The BP predicts a current sample from a reconstructed previously coded sample to the left of the current sample in the same scan line. The offset from the current sample to the predictor position is a BP vector. The BP vector and the decision of whether or not to use BP are determined automatically by the BP function, which is the same in both the encoder and decoder.

Block Prediction

Block prediction may predict the current sample where the predictor is a sample to the left of the current sample, in the same line. The relative position of the reference sample may be between (−3) and (−10), inclusive. Using additional pixel locations may improve quality. The relative position is a vector within the same line of samples; this is referred to as the block prediction vector.

The search to find the best vector may be performed on the previous line of samples, rather than the line that is currently being coded. In one implementation, the block search compares a set of 9 consecutive samples with reference samples using various potential vectors with values ranging from −3 to −10. The current samples and the reference samples being compared are in the same scan line, e.g., the line above the line of the sample to be coded. For each vector considered, a SAD (sum of absolute differences) is calculated over 9 samples in each of the current and reference set. The vector with the lowest SAD value is selected. In cases of ties, the vector closest to 0 is selected.

The 9-pixel SAD of the vector −1 is also used in order to determine whether BP or MMAP should be used. More details of predictor selection are given below.

A vector, once selected, applies to each group of 3 samples. Therefore the block search is performed every 3 samples.

A vector means that the predictor for pixel X is the pixel that is to the left of pixel X in same line, the distance to the left in pixel units being equal to the vector value.

FIG. 15 illustrates example sample sets 1500 for block search, showing several reference samples 1502 and vectors 1504, 1506. An example of the current sample ‘x’ 1505 and the current SAD calculation samples 1508 are also shown. ICH logic 1312, 1408

FIG. 16 illustrates an example of ICH 1600.

In many types of content, such as computer-generated text and graphics, similar pixel values tend to appear in reasonably close proximity while not necessarily being adjacent to one another. Because of this, it can be helpful to keep track of a number of recently-used pixel values in the ICH. When the encoder 1300 selects ICH-mode for a particular group, it sends index values corresponding to the selected pixel values within the ICH. These index values are used directly in the output pixel stream.

The ICH logic includes a storage unit that maintains a set of recently used color values that were coded using another coding method such as predictive coding. The encoder 1300 and decoder 1400 may maintain identical states of the ICH. The ICH may have 32 entries, with an index value pointing to each entry. For groups that are ICH coded, each pixel may be coded with a 5-bit ICH index, which points to one of the entries. As each group of pixels is encoded in the encoder or decoded in the decoder in P-mode, the values of all the pixels in the group are entered into the ICH. The ICH may be managed as a shift register where the most-recently used (MRU) values are at the top and the least-recently used (LRU) values are at the bottom. New entries are added at the top and all other entries are shifted down, with the bottom entries falling out of the ICH. When a group is coded in ICH-mode, the three indices used to code those pixels reference entries in the ICH. When an ICH entry is referenced, it is moved to the top of the ICH and the other values above the prior location of the entry are shifted down by 1. This operation is performed in parallel for all 3 entries of each ICH coded group, and the most recent, e.g., the rightmost pixel value of the group becomes the MRU. The result is that the most recently used (MRU) value is at the top of the history and the least recently used (LRU) value is at the bottom of the history. Whenever a P-mode group of three pixels is added at top of the history, the three LRU values are removed.

For the first line each slice, all 32 ICH entries are treated as part of the shift register. For lines after the first line of a slice, the last 7 index values are defined to point to reconstructed pixels in the line above the current line, rather than entries in the ICH. This is useful for efficient coding of pixel values that are not in the history shift register, and it improves coding with some content.

ICH mode may be selected on a per-group basis by the encoder 1300. The encoder 1300 signals the use of ICH mode for a group using an escape code in the luma substream DSU-VLC. For each group coded in ICH mode, each pixel in the group is coded using a fixed-length 5 bit code, where the index values point into the history. The decoder 1400 decodes each ICH-coded group by determining the use of ICH mode via the bitstream syntax and decoding each pixel in the group by reading the values pointed to by the ICH indices that constitute the coded values of the pixels. Both the encoder 1300 and decoder 1400 update the ICH state identically every group by inserting P-mode pixels into the ICH and by re-ordering the ICH entries in response to ICH mode groups.

Entropy coding logic 1314, 1404

The display stream coding defines syntax at multiple layers. The lowest layer is called the substream layer. There may be three substreams in each slice, one for each component. The three substreams may be multiplexed together by a sub-stream multiplexing (SSM) process to form a coded slice. If there is more than one slice per line, the coded slices may be multiplexed by the slice multiplex process; and if there is only one slice per line, the slice multiplex process is not used. The resulting bits of all slices are concatenated to form a coded picture. Each coded picture is optionally preceded by a picture parameter set (PPS).

Substream Layer

The display stream encoding may use an entropy coding technique referred to above as DSU-VLC for coding residuals associated with predictive coding. ICH coding of pixels uses a fixed-length code for each pixel. Specialized values are used to signal the use of ICH mode, and other codes signal quantization adjustments associated with flat regions of pixels.

TABLE 1 Examples of sizes for different residual values Residual values Size in bits Representation −3 3 101b −2 2  10b −1 1  1b 0 0 <none> 1 2  01b 2 3 010b 3 3 011b

The pixels in each slice may be organized into groups of three consecutive pixels each. A group is a logical construction employed by the encoding and decoding processes, but need not be directly represented in the bitstream. DSU-VLC organizes samples into units. A unit is the coded set of residuals of three consecutive samples of one component. Each unit has two parts: a prefix and a residual. The size of each residual is predicted based on the size of the three previous residuals of the same component type and any change in QP that may have occurred. The prefix may be a unary code that indicates the non-negative difference between the size of the largest residual in the unit and the predicted size. If the difference is negative, the value coded by the prefix is zero. The residual portion of each unit contains 3 values, one for each sample in the unit. The residual values are coded in 2's complement. The number of bits allocated to residuals can vary from unit to unit; however, all 3 residuals in one unit may be allocated the same number of bits.

In addition, the prefix for luma units also indicates whether or not ICH mode is used for each group. A transition from P-mode to ICH-mode may be indicated by an escape code, e.g., a prefix value that indicates a size that is one greater than the maximum possible residual size for luma. The maximum possible residual size for luma depends on the QP value that applies to luma in the group. An ICH-mode group immediately following another ICH mode group may be indicated by a luma prefix code consisting of a single “1” bit. A P-mode group immediately following an ICH-mode group may be indicated by a modified unary code.

For an ICH-mode group, the residual portion may be 5 bits for each component, where each 5 bit code is an ICH index which codes a complete pixel, and the chroma components do not utilize a prefix. For subsequent ICH-mode groups following an initial ICH-mode group, each group may use 16 bits for every group, e.g., a 1 bit prefix and (3) 5 bit ICH codes.

The luma substream may also contain some conditional fixed-length codes in the syntax for the purpose of the encoder conveying information about a transition from a busy area to a smooth area. This “flatness indication” is discussed in more detail below.

Substream Multiplexing

The three component-wise substreams may be multiplexed together using a fixed-length substream multiplexing scheme with no headers. One technique for doing so is described in the U.S. Patent Publication Number 2011-0305282 A1, which is incorporated by reference. FIG. 17 shows an example of the results of substream multiplexing 1700, including various multiplexed words and components 1702. Each mux word may have an identical size, e.g., 48 bits for 8 or 10 bits per component (bpc), or 64 bits for 12 bpc. The order of the mux words and components 1702 is derived from the order in which parallel substream decoders use the data in order to decode in real time.

FIG. 18 shows an example of substream demultiplexing logic 1800. The logic 1800 includes a memory such as a rate buffer 1802, a demultiplexer 1804, and funnel shifters with VLD 1806, 1808, and 1810. The combination of the funnel shifter and VLD is referred to as a substream processor (SSP). At each group time, any combination of the SSP's may request a mux word or none at all. If a request is received from an SSP, the demultiplexer 1804 sends a mux word to that SSP. If multiple requests are received in the same group time, the demultiplexer 1804 sends a mux word to each SSP that made a request.

At the end of the slice, the SSP's may request mux words beyond the end of the substream layer data. Therefore, the encoder 1300 may insert padding mux words as needed at the end of the slice.

FIG. 19 shows an example of the substream multiplexing logic 1900, including VLC and funnel shifters 1902, 1904, 1906, balance memories (e.g., FIFOs) 1908, 1910, 1912, a multiplexer 1914, rate buffer 1916, and demultiplexer model 1918. The demultiplexer model 1918 helps the encoder 1300 to order the mux words correctly. The balance FIFO's 1908, 1910, 1912 may store many groups worth of data in order to provide the mux words at the appropriate time.

Rate Control

The encoder 1300 and decoder 1400 may use identical rate control (RC) algorithms, configured identically. The decisions made by the RC algorithm to adjust QP in the encoder are mimicked in the decoder 1400, such that the decoder 1400 has the same QP value as the encoder 1300 at every pixel, without any bits being spent communicating the QP value, except for the flatness indication. RC decisions are made in the encoder 1300 and decoder 1400 based on information previously transmitted and received. RC can change the QP value every group.

Rate Control Goals

The RC provides the encoder 1300 and decoder 1400 with quantization parameters (QP) to use for each group. Since the RC function is the same on both the encoder side and the decoder side, the base QP value is known to both encoder 1300 and decoder 1400, and it does not need to be transmitted in the bitstream. However, the base QP value or adjustments to the QP value may be sent in the bitstream for flatness indication, described below.

The RC attempts to ensure hypothetical reference decoder (HRD) conformance. There is a model of an idealized rate buffer (FIFO) that converts a varying number of bits to code each group into a specified constant bit rate. The RC is designed to ensure that this FIFO will not overflow or underflow assuming that bits are removed at an assumed constant bit rate.

The RC optimizes picture quality in its QP decisions. It is desirable to use a lower QP on relatively flat areas and a higher QP on busy areas due to perceptual masking. In addition, it is desirable to maintain a constant quality for all pixels; for example, the first line of a slice has limited prediction, and may therefore use an additional bit allocation.

HRD Buffer Model

A hypothetical reference decoder (HRD) model describes the behavior of an idealized rate buffer in a decoding system. An encoder rate buffer model may be mirrored on the decoder side. The encoder model tries to ensure that there are no overflows or underflows. Since the DSC may be constant bit rate (CBR), the HRD model fullness is equal to buffer size—encoder buffer fullness; therefore, the decoder buffer model does not overflow or underflow. The DSC encoder rate buffer model may define a schedule for bits entering and leaving the rate buffer.

During the initial delay, e.g., initial transmission delay, the encoder generates bits into its rate buffer every group, but no bits are removed. During this period, the encoder model fullness increases according to the number of bits that are generated. The delay period may be specified in terms of group times or pixel times, as examples.

As long as there are more pixels in the slice to be encoded, the encoder generates bits according to the content. Bits are removed at the constant rate that is specified. To prevent the buffer fullness from dropping below 0, the prediction mode may be overridden to use MPP, which enforces a minimum data rate. Once the last group of a slice has been encoded, no more bits are added to the rate buffer. Bits continue to leave the rate buffer at the constant rate until the buffer becomes empty, after which the encoder sends zero bits to ensure that the compressed slice size in bits is equal to bpp*number of pixels in slice, in CBR operation.

The decoder initial delay is specified as the complement of the encoder initial delay; e.g., the HRD delay minus encoder initial delay. The decoder rate buffer fullness then tracks as the complement of the encoder buffer fullness.

CBR vs. VBR

Under conditions when the encoder rate buffer would otherwise underflow, there is a design choice of whether the encoder inserts bits to prevent underflow, or it uses variable bit rate (VBR). To prevent underflow, the RC determines whether underflow is possible after the next coded group, and when this condition occurs it forces MPP mode which enforces a minimum bit rate. The decoder does not require any special logic to handle stuffing, as it decodes the extra bits just as it would any other group.

It is possible to support VBR. With VBR, the encoder 1300 stops sending bits under certain conditions when it would otherwise underflow and has no bits to send (Off). The encoder 1300 then starts sending bits again at some identified event (On). To make on-off VBR compatible with a general HRD that does not depend on the real time behavior of the transport, the off and on events may be specified.

With VBR, the encoder stops sending bits when it would otherwise underflow and has no bits to send. The encoder's RC process operates once per group. At each group, it adds to the buffer model the number of bits that code the group, and normally it subtracts from the buffer model the nominal number of bits per group, which is 3*bpp, adjusted as necessary to form an integer number of bits. With VBR, if this subtraction of bits/group from the buffer model fullness would result in a negative value of fullness, the RC subtracts the normal number of bits and then clamps the buffer fullness to zero, i.e. the model fullness is never allowed to be negative. In a real system with a real transport and real decoder, when the encoder has no bits to send, e.g. its real rate buffer is empty, the transport does not send any bits and the decoder does not receive any bits. The decoder's real rate buffer may be full, but it does not overflow. When the encoder does have bits to send, transport is expected to transmit them at the normal rate and the decoder receives them at that rate. The decoder's real buffer does not overflow or underflow, and the decoder does not have to do anything special to handle VBR. The transport should understand when there is and is not valid data available to send and receive.

Slices

The number of bits that code a picture may be equal to the number of pixels of that picture times the specified bpp rate. Further, any subset of slices of a picture may be updated in place in a compressed frame buffer by over-writing the previous version of each of the corresponding slices. One consequence is that a complete picture can be transmitted as a series of consecutive slices comprising the entire picture, and that an entire picture transmitted as a series of consecutive slices meets the same requirement as for slices, e.g., the number of bits equals the number of pixels times the bpp rate, and also the entire picture comprising slices should conform to an appropriate HRD model to ensure correct real time buffer behavior with this mode of operation. One consequence is that the delay from the start of transmission to the start of decoding and the delay from the end of transmission to the end of decoding are the same as one another and the same for each slice.

The algorithm uses a rate buffer model, which may be referred to as a rate buffer. The algorithm allows the encoder's rate buffer to have up to a specified fullness, e.g., a maximum number of bits, at the end of each slice. If at the end of coding a slice the encoder's buffer has fewer bits than this maximum number, it may pad the remaining bits at the end with 0s, for example, to produce exactly the required number of bits. This final number of bits occupies a specified number of pixel times to transmit at the specified bpp rate. This number of pixel times is the delay from the end of encoding to the end of transmission, which may be called the final transmission delay. The total rate buffer delay, in units of pixel times, in the combination of an idealized encoder and decoder is equal to the rate buffer size divided by the bpp rate. The initial transmission delay, from the start of encoding a slice until the start of transmission of that slice, is the same as the final transmission delay. The initial decoding delay, e.g., the delay in the HRD timing model from the start of reception of a slice to the start of decoding of the slice is set equal to the total end-end rate buffer delay minus the initial transmission delay. This permits correct operation per the description above.

FIG. 20 shows an example of slice timing and delays 2000. FIG. 20 shows slice input video timing 2002, slice transmission timing 2004, and slice decoding timing 2006. The algorithm may have a fixed parameter value for the maximum number of bits that can be in the encoder buffer at the end of a slice, typically ˜4 kbits. The resulting ending transmission delay is a function of the bpp rate; it is set to ceiling(4096/bpp_rate). At 8 bpp, this delay is 170 group times, and at 12 bpp it is 114 group times. The initial delay may be set to this value.

The end-end HRD delay is equal to the HRD buffer size divided by the bpp rate. For example, if the HRD buffer size is 19,836 bits and the rate is 12 bpp, the end-end HRD delay is floor(19,836/36)=551 group times. This is actually an upper bound, and the HRD delay could be set to a lower value, however if a lower value were used then the algorithm would not be able to take full advantage of the available buffer size for purposes of RC.

The initial decoding delay, which applies directly to the HRD and indirectly to real decoders, should be set to the HRD delay—initial transmission delay. In the example here, where the initial transmission delay is set to 114 group times as above, the initial decoder delay is 551−114=437 group times. This is a delay that applies to the HRD, i.e. an idealized hypothetical decoder. A real decoder is of course free to have additional delay.

The algorithm's rate buffer size, which is also the HRD buffer size, can be selected by an encoder as long as it does not exceed the capabilities of compatible decoders. The optimum rate buffer size is a function of several factors including the bpp rate and the width of slices.

Note that the initial transmission delay is typically a function of bpp rate. The HRD rate buffer size may be set by the encoder as long as it does not exceed the capabilities of decoders. It is practical to design real systems with adjustable bit rate and constant end-end delay, from video into the encoder to video out of the decoder, and with constant delay from compressed data into the decoder to video put of the decoder. An encoder may set the initial transmission delay and the initial decoder delay to selected values to facilitate seamless changes of bit rate with constant delay.

Options for Slices

The encoder 1300 and decoder 1400 support a wide variety of slice widths and heights. One configuration is slice width=¼ picture width and slice height=32 lines. Another possible configuration is slice width=picture width and slice height=8 lines. The slice dimensions can be specified up to the picture width by the picture height. To minimize extra data that may need to be sent, equal-sized slices may be used throughout the picture.

Taller slices may lead to better compression. Extra bits are allocated to the first line of each slice to maximize quality and to prevent artifacts at the boundaries between slices. The number of extra bits allocated per group on the first line is set via a parameter in the PPS. The numbers of bits available to all lines after the first line each slice may be reduced in order that the total number of bits per slice is the number of pixels times the bpp rate. The more lines there are after the first line in each slice, the less reduction in bit allocation is required. Therefore a slice height of 32 lines typically gives better performance than a slice height of 8. There is no cost associated with slice height—there is no additional buffering nor any other additional resources. The encoder 1300 and decoder 1400 support a slice size equal to the entire picture size.

Slices narrower than the full screen width may be desirable for various practical purposes. Narrower slices provide the ability to update, via partial update, a narrower slice, or to facilitate parallel processing at low cost. In practice, multiple slices per line can use one line buffer the size of the picture width. With multiple slices per line, and slices that are taller than one line, the rate buffers for the different slices may be independent. For example, with four slices per line, a practical implementation would use four rate buffers. The sizes of each rate buffer can be specified to be smaller for the case of 4 slices/line than they would normally be specified for the case of one slice/line, as the optimum rate buffer size is a function of the slice width, although not exactly proportional. Hence there is a small increase in the total amount of rate buffer space when there are multiple slices per line, while there is no increase in the total amount of line buffer space.

Slice Multiplexing

In systems configured to use more than one slice per scan line, the compressed data may be multiplexed according to a specific pattern in order to minimize cost in both encoders and decoders. The recommended pattern is as follows. For an integer number S of slices per line, each slice has P pixels per line, and the picture is W pixels wide. Preferably P is equal for all slices, equal to W/S, which is preferably an integer. The multiplexed bit stream contains a number of bits=P*bpp rate for the first slice of the first row of slices, then P*bpp rate for the 2nd slice of the first row, and so on for all slices of the first row.

One iteration of this pattern has W*bpp rate bits, which may be the same number of bits as would have been used if there were one slice per line. If P*bpp rate is not an integer, an adjustment can be made to result in an integer number of bits per slice. For example, the number of bits included for one line of one slice may be the integer truncated value of P*bpp plus the accumulated residual amount from previous truncations. Then this pattern repeats as many times as needed to transmit all the bits of all slices in the first row of slices. An application specification, for example a transport specification that is designed to carry DSC compressed image data, may carry data from different slices in separate packets. In that case, the last bits from one slice may be in a separate packet from those of other slices, including the first bits of the vertically adjacent slice immediately below the first one. Alternatively an application specification may choose to package the last bits of one slice with the first bits of another slice, for example a horizontally adjacent neighboring slice or a vertically adjacent neighboring slice. The overall pattern may repeat for the entire image. It is not necessary to include markers or other indications in the bit stream indicating which bits are for which slice. Instead, the transport layer may provide such indicators.

Additional information on slice multiplexing follows.

Slice multiplexing may occur when VBR is disabled, e.g., stuffing is enabled. When stuffing is disabled, the number of bits coding each slice may vary, e.g., the DSC operation is VBR. Pictures include some number of slices. Slices may be identically-sized when possible, e.g., when the ratio of picture width to slice width is an integer. In case this ratio is not an integer, the widths of the columns of slices may be set to integer values that differ by no more than 1, and whose sum is the picture width. Slice multiplexing is possible also when VBR is enabled as well. The memories used and multiplexing pattern will depend on characteristics of the link, including for example, the overhead required to enter or leave a low-power state.

With VBR disabled (stuffing enabled) slices of the same width are coded using the same number of compressed bits. When the slice width is equal to the picture width, the slice layer data is sent sequentially (slice 0, slice 1, . . . , slice N−1, where N is the number of slices). When the slice width is shorter than the picture width, the slice data for all slices on the same line may be multiplexed into fixed-length chunks. The length of each chunk may be equal to floor(bits_per_pixel*slice_width). The floor( ) function is used since bits_per_pixel may be fractional. For example, in a case where the picture is split into two equal-sized slices on each line, the multiplexed bitstream would contain:

Slice 0 chunk/Slice 1 chunk/Slice 0 chunk/Slice 1 chunk . . .

The final chunks of each slice may be padded with zero bits if needed due to the ceil( ) function.

With VBR enabled, the number of bits of coding each slice may differ from P*bpp rate. For example, the number of bits may be less than this value. The number of bits per chunk may differ from floor(bits_per_pixel*slice_width), for example the number of bits may be less than this value. Slices may be multiplexed using chunks of unequal numbers of bits. The numbers of bits per chunk may be indicated for example by packet length information or marker codes in a transport layer.

The display stream coding may be specified in terms of components that are labeled Y, Co, and Cg. If the convert_rgb flag is equal to 0 in the current PPS, the encoder may accept YCbCr input. The Cb component may be mapped to the Co component label. The Cr component may be mapped to the Cg component label. In this case, the bit depth of the Cb/Co and Cr/Cg components may be equal to the Y component, whose bit depth is specified using the bits_per_component field in the current PPS. If the convert_rgb flag is equal to 1 in the current PPS, the encoder may perform color-space conversion from RGB to YCoCg. The color space conversion may be: cscCo=R−B t=B+(cscCo>>1) cscCg=G−t y=t+(cscCg>>1)

The cscCo and cscCg values have one additional bit of dynamic range compared with Y. The final Co and Cg values may be centered around the midpoint: Co=cscCo+(1<<bits_per_component) Cg=cscCg+(1<<bits_per_component)

Note that here, the bits_per_component variable may represent the number of bits of each of the R, G, and B components, which is one less than the number of bits per component for the Co and Cg components. If a slice extends beyond the right edge of a picture, the right-most pixel in each line of the picture may be repeated to pad the slice to the correct horizontal size. If a slice extends beyond the bottom edge of a picture, the bottom-most pixel in each pixel column of the picture may be repeated to pad the slice to the correct vertical size.

Line Storage

The display stream compression may include buffer memory to hold the previous line's reconstructed pixel values for MMAP prediction and ICH. In some cases, a decoder line buffer may have sufficient storage to contain the full-range reconstructed samples. However, some decoders may choose to use a smaller bit depth to lower the implementation cost.

If a smaller bit depth is used, the decoder may communicate this to the encoder. The encoder may set the linebuf_width according to what the decoder implementation supports. The following method for bit-reducing samples may be used:

-   -   shiftAmount=MAX(0, maxBpc−linebuf_width);     -   round=(shiftAmount>0)?(1<<(shiftAmount−1)):0;     -   storedSample=(sample+round)>>shiftAmount;     -   readSample=storedSample<<shiftAmount;

where maxBpc is the bit depth of the current component, storedSample is the sample value that is written to the line buffer, and readSample is the value that is read back.

Prediction Types

There are three prediction types that may be supported in P-mode: MMAP, BP, and MPP.

Modified Median-Adaptive Prediction (MMAP)

The modified median-adaptive predictor is specified in the table below.

TABLE 2 Pixels surrounding current group c b d e a P0 P1 P2

Table 2 shows the labeling convention for the pixels surrounding the three pixels in the group being predicted (P0, P1, and P2). Pixels ‘c’, ‘b’, ‘d’, and ‘e’ are from the previous line, and pixel ‘a’ is the reconstructed pixel immediately to the left.

A QP-adaptive filter may be applied to reference pixels from the previous line before they are used in the MMAP formulas below. A horizontal low-pass filter [0.25 0.5 0.25] may be applied to the previous line to get filtered pixels filtC, filtB, filtD, and filtE. For example, filtB=(c+2*b+d+2)>>2;

The filtered pixels may be blended with the original pixels to get the values that are used in MMAP (blendC, blendB, blendD, blendE). The following method is used for the blending:

-   -   diffC=CLAMP(filtC−c, −QuantDivisor[qlevel]/2,         QuantDivisor[qlevel]/2);     -   blendC=c+diffC;     -   diffB=CLAMP(filtB−b, −QuantDivisor[qlevel]/2,         QuantDivisor[qlevel]/2);     -   blendB=b+diffB;     -   diffD=CLAMP(filtD−d, −QuantDivisor[qlevel]/2,         QuantDivisor[qlevel]/2);     -   blendD=d+diffD;     -   diffE=CLAMP(filtE−e, −QuantDivisor[qlevel]/2,         QuantDivisor[qlevel]/2);     -   blendE=e+diffE;

The predicted value for each is given below:

-   -   P0=CLAMP(a+blendB−blendC, MIN(a, blendB), MAX(a, blendB));     -   P1=CLAMP(a+blendD−blendC+R0, MIN(a, blendB, blendD), MAX(a,         blendB, blendD));     -   P2=CLAMP(a+blendE−blendC+R0+R1, MIN(a, blendB, blendD, blendE),         MAX(a,blendB, blendD, blendE));

where R0 and R1 are the inverse quantized residuals for the first and second samples in the group.

In the case of the first line of a slice, the previous line's pixels are not available. So the prediction for each pixel becomes:

-   -   P0=a;     -   P1=CLAMP(a+R0, 0, (1−maxBpc)−1);     -   P2=CLAMP(a+R0+R1, 0, (1−maxBpc)−1);

where maxBpc is the bit depth for the component that is being predicted.

Block Prediction (BP)

The BP predictor is a pixel value taken from a pixel some number of pixels to the left of the current pixel. The “block prediction vector” (bpVector) is a negative value that represents the number of pixels to the left to use for the prediction. In one implementation, the block prediction vector is always between −3 and −10 inclusive, which means that it uses samples outside of the current group.

The BP predictor is used to predict all three components from the pixel referred to by the block prediction vector: P[hPos]=recon[hPos+bpVector];

So the predicted values for the 3×1 group correspond with the reconstructed pixels values for the 3×1 set of pixels that is pointed to by the block prediction vector.

Midpoint Prediction

The midpoint predictor is a value at or near the midpoint of the range, and depends on the value of the reconstructed pixel immediately to the left of the current pixel (pixel “a” in Table 2). midpointPred=(1<<(maxBpc−1))+(a & ((1<<qLevel)−1));

where maxBpc is the bit depth for the component being predicted, and qLevel is the quantization level that applies to the current component.

Predictor Selection

Block prediction is supported by the encoder 1300. The encoder 1300 may choose to disable block prediction in the stream (e.g., because the attached decoder does not support block prediction or because the picture would not benefit from block prediction) by setting block_pred_enable in the PPS equal to 0. In this case, MMAP is selected over block prediction, and the algorithms in this section are not used.

The decision to use either BP or MMAP may be made on a group basis using information from the previous line. This means that the decision can be made up to a line time in advance of processing the current group if it helps the implementation. The group referred to in this section starts at a horizontal location of hPos pixels from the leftmost pixel column in the slice.

FIG. 21 shows an example 2100 of 3×1 partial SADs that form 9×1 SAD. First, a search may be performed to find the best block prediction vector. The reference pixels for the SAD may be the set of 9 pixels in the previous line starting at a horizontal location of hPos−6. The SAD is computed between the reference pixels and 9 different block prediction candidateVector's (−1, −3, −4, −5, −6, −7, −8, −9, and −10) pointing to the previous line's pixels. The 9-pixel SAD is computed as a sum of 3 3-pixel SAD's (see FIG. 21). First, each absolute difference may be truncated and clipped before being summed in the 3-pixel SAD according to: modifiedAbsDiff=MIN(absDiff−(maxBpc−7),0x3F);

where maxBpc is the bit depth for the current component.

The resulting 6-bit modifiedAbsDiff values are summed over each set of three adjacent samples and over the 3 components, resulting in a 10 bit value that represents the 3×1 partial SAD for one component; this 10-bit value is clamped to 9-bits (e.g., values greater than 511 are clamped to 511). Three 9-bit 3-pixel partial SAD's are summed to get the final 9-pixel SAD, which is an 11-bit number. The 3 least significant bits (LSBs) of each 9×1 SAD are truncated before comparison: bpSad[candidateVector]=MIN(511,sad3x1_0[candidateVector]+sad3x1_1 [candidateVector]+sad3x1_2 [candidateVector]);

The 9 9-pixel SAD's are compared to one another, and the lowest SAD may be selected, with ties broken by selecting the smallest magnitude block prediction vector. If the lowest SAD block prediction vector is −1, the bpCount counter is reset to zero and MMAP is selected for this group. If the lowest SAD block prediction vector is not −1, the candidate BP vector becomes the vector with the lowest SAD, and the bpCount counter is incremented unless hPos<9.

BP may be selected if the following conditions are all true:

The bpCount value is greater than or equal to 3.

lastEdgeCount is less than 9. The lastEdgeCount value represents the number of pixels that have gone by since an “edge” occurred. An “edge” occurs when ABS(current sample−left sample)>32<<(bits_per_component−8) for any component.

Selecting Between BP/MMAP and MPP

The encoder may decide whether to use BP/MMAP based on the size of the quantized residuals that would be generated if BP/MMAP were selected. For example, the encoder may determine the maximum residual size for BP/MMAP for each of the three components. If the maximum residual size for any component is greater than or equal to a threshold such as maxBpc−qLevel for that component, then MPP may be selected for that component.

In addition, the encoder may select MPP in order to enforce a minimum data rate to prevent underflow.

Quantization

The predicted value of each sample of the pixel is subtracted from the corresponding input samples to form the residual sample values E, one for each component of the pixel. E=x−Px,

-   -   where x is input, Px is predicted value.

Each residual value E may be quantized using division with truncation by a divisor that is a power of 2 and using rounding with a rounding value that is 1 less than half the divisor.

If E<0 QE = (E−ROUND)/DIVISOR Else QE = (E+ROUND)/DIVISOR // the “/” operator is div with truncation as in C

Where:

-   -   DIVISOR=2**qLevel=1<<qLevel     -   ROUND=DIVISOR/2−1

The value of qLevel may be different for luma and chroma and is determined by the rate control (RC) function.

MPP quantized residuals may be checked to ensure that their sizes do not exceed a threshold such as maxBpc−qLevel, where qLevel is the quantization level for the component type (luma or chroma) and maxVal is the maximum possible sample value for the component type. If an MPP residual exceeds this size, the encoder may change the residual to the nearest residual with a size of maxBpc−qLevel.

Inverse Quantization and Reconstruction

The encoder may follow the same process used in the decoder to arrive at the reconstructed pixel values. For pixels that are predicted using MMAP, BP, or MPP, the reconstructed sample value may be: reconsample=CLAMP(predSample+(quantized_residual<<qLevel),0,maxVal);

where predSample is the predicted sample value, quantized_residual is the quantized residual, qLevel is the quantization level for the component type (luma or chroma), and maxVal is the maximum possible sample value for the component type.

Flatness QP Override

FIG. 22 shows an example 2200 of original pixels used for encoder flatness checks. Encoders generate a “flatness signal” if upcoming input pixels are relatively flat to allow the QP to drop quickly. The encoder algorithm to determine the flatness bits in the syntax is described below, as is the algorithm that both the encoder and decoder follow to modify the QP.

Encoder Flatness Decision

A set of 4 consecutive groups is called a supergroup. The encoder examines each supergroup before it is encoded in order to determine which, if any, of the groups are “flat”. The first supergroup starts with the 2nd group in the slice as shown in FIG. 22. Supergroups may be defined consecutively within the slice. A supergroup that includes the last group of a line may wrap around to include groups on the subsequent line.

The flatness determination may be done for each group within the supergroup independently and includes a determination of the “flatness type” (e.g., either somewhat flat or very flat) for each group. Two flatness checks may be performed, both using pixels from the original, uncompressed image.

Flatness check 1 determines the MAX and MIN value among the samples shown in FIG. 22 for each component. A value of flatQLevel is determined for each component: flatQLevel=MapQpToQlevel(MAX(0,masterQp−4));

The masterQp value that is used is the one that is used for rate control for the 2nd group to the left of the supergroup that is being tested. MapQptoQlevel maps the masterQP value to qLevelY (luma) and qLevelC (chroma) values that are used for both luma and chroma. For example, a masterQP value of 0 may map to qLevelC and qLevelY values of 0, values 1 and 2 may map to qLevelC values of 1 and 2 respectively, and successive unit increases in masterQP may map to unit increases alternating between qLevelY and qLevelC.

If the MAX−MIN for any component is greater than (2<<(bits_per_component−8)), the check for very flat fails for flatness check 1; otherwise, it passes. If the MAX−MIN for any component is greater than QuantDivisor[flatQLevel], the check for somewhat flat fails for flatness check 1; otherwise, it passes.

If flatness check 1 indicates that the group is either somewhat flat or very flat, that result is the final result that is used for the group. If both fail, flatness check 2 is performed over the 6 pixels indicated in FIG. 22. The same comparisons are done as in flatness check 1, except that the MAX and MIN are computed over 6 samples rather than 4. The final result of flatness check 2 is then used as the final result for the group.

For a given supergroup, there are then four flatness indications of either very flat, flat, somewhat flat, or not flat. The value of prevIsFlat is initialized to 1 if the previous supergroup had a flatness indication; otherwise it is initialized to 0. The following algorithm is used to distill the flatness information into a single flatness location and type:

  Loop over four groups in supergroup {     If !prevIsFlat && group is either very flat or somewhat flat      Current group and flatness type is signaled     Else      prevIsFlat = 0; }

If no group is selected, no QP modification is made and flatness_flag for the supergroup is set to 0 in the entropy decoder. If a group is selected, the flatness_flag for the supergroup is set to 1, and the corresponding group is signaled as the first_flat group in the bit stream along with its associated flatness_type. The entropy encoder will only signal flatness_flag if the masterQp value is within the range of flatness_min_qp and flatness_max_qp, so no adjustment is made in the RC if the corresponding masterQp is out of range.

The encoder flatness searches do not span to the next line. If a group within a supergroup falls on the next line, it is not considered to be flat. However, the first group of a line may contain the next_flatness_flag syntax element assuming the syntax allows it at that point.

Flatness QP Adjustment

The encoder and decoder make the same QP adjustment for a group where a flatness indication has been made. The RC receives a flatness signal corresponding to a particular group within a supergroup that may be either “somewhat flat” or “very flat”. It should be noted that if the current masterQp is less than 7<<(2*(bits_per_component−8)), the flatness indication may be assumed to be “somewhat flat”.

For a “very flat” signal, the QP is adjusted as follows: masterQp=1<<(2*(bits_per_component−8));

For a “somewhat flat” signal: masterQp=MAX(stQp−4,0);

If there is no flatness signal for a particular group: masterQp=stQp

If the flatness QP override modifies the masterQp, the modified masterQp is used as the starting point for the short-term rate control on the next RC cycle.

Indexed Color History

In some implementations, the ICH may improve coding (e.g., encoding or decoding) of content. For example, the ICH may improve coding for finely detailed content such as text. The ICH may be used to efficiently code colors (e.g., color values or pixel values) that have previously occurred in an image, e.g., colors from a previously processed portion of an image, at a previous line or row position in the image, located at a position above, below, to the left, and/or to the right of a current pixel with a particular color, etc. The ICH may also efficiently code similar, but not identical, colors that have occurred previously in the image, such as similar colors that match one or more similarity criteria with respect to an original color.

FIG. 23 shows an example encoder 3100. The example encoder 3100 provides an example context for the ICH architectures and techniques discussed below. In the example given in FIG. 23, the encoder 3100 includes a transceiver 3102 and circuitry that includes system logic 3103. The circuitry that includes system logic 3103 may be implemented in hardware, and may also include software. In one implementation, the circuitry that includes the system logic 3103 includes one or more processors 3104, a memory 3106, and a user interface 3108.

The transceiver 3102 may be a wireless transceiver, and the transmitted and received signals may adhere to any of a diverse array of formats, protocols, modulations, frequency channels, bit rates, and encodings. Thus, the transceiver 3102 may support the 802.11a/b/g/n/ac standards, the 60 GHz WiGig/802.11TGad specification, Bluetooth, Global System for Mobile communications (GSM), Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), 4G L or other wireless access techniques or protocols. The transceiver 3102 may send and receive data coded according to the techniques described below.

Additionally or alternatively, the embodiments described herein may be implemented with wired interfaces such as a digital display interface including DisplayPort, Embedded Display Port, Mobile Industry Processor Interface (MIPI) display serial interface (DSI), High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI), and Mobile High-Definition Link (MHL).

The circuitry that includes the processor 3104 executes the system instructions 3110. The system instructions 3110 may include an operating system, application programs, device firmware, video and audio coders, video and audio decoders, or other instructions. The system instructions 3110 include encoding instructions 3112. The encoding instructions 3112 may include controls for hardware, software, or both, any of the video compression processing and/or ICH described below.

Additionally or alternatively, the memory 3106 may store an ICH 3113, data to be encoded (e.g., images and their pixel data) 3116 and operational parameters 3114 for the encoding instructions 3112. In some implementations, the ICH may be stored in a separate memory. Examples of operational parameters 3114, include parameters used for selecting whether ICH coding mode is used or not, parameters used for selecting index values, or any other parameters described below.

The circuitry that includes the system logic 3103 of the encoder 3100 may read the operational parameters 3114, update the ICH 3113, determine which content (e.g., pixel values) to encode using the ICH 3113, specify a syntax for selecting an ICH coding mode or a syntax for coding pixel values in a compressed bit stream using index values.

FIG. 24 shows an example decoder 3200. The example decoder 3200 provides another example context for the ICH architectures and techniques discussed below. In the example given in FIG. 24, the decoder 3200 includes a transceiver 3202 and circuitry that includes system logic 3203. The circuitry that includes system logic 3203 may be implemented in hardware, and may also include software. In one implementation, the circuitry that includes system logic 3203 includes one or more processors 3204, a memory 3206, and a user interface 3208. The transceiver 3202 may share any of the characteristics of the transceiver 3102 described above.

The circuitry that includes the processor 3204 executes the system instructions 3210. The system instructions 3210 may include an operating system, application programs, device firmware, video and audio coders, video and audio decoders, or other instructions. The system instructions 3210 include decoding instructions 3212. The decoding instructions 3212 may include controls for hardware, software, or both, any of the processing using an ICH described below, such any of the decoding processing described below.

The memory 3206 can also store an ICH 3213 for the decoder 3200, and may be implemented in the same or in a different way as the ICH 3113 of the encoder 3100. Additionally or alternatively, the ICH may be stored in a separate memory. The memory 3206 also stores data to be decoded (e.g., compressed images and their pixel data) 3216 and operational parameters 3214 for the decoding instructions 3212. Examples of operational parameters 3214 include parameters used for selecting whether ICH coding mode is used or not, parameters used for selecting index values, or any other parameters described below.

The circuitry that includes the system logic 3203 of the decoder 3200 may maintain consistent ICH entries in ICH 3213 as with those of the ICH 3113 of the encoder 3100, decode syntax to select an ICH coding mode, or decode pixels coded in an ICH coding mode.

In some embodiments, the ICH algorithm may implement redundancy checking. When a pixel is coded using predictive coding, it may be compared to other pixels in the ICH. In some embodiments with redundancy checking, if a value for a newly coded pixel is the same or very similar to another value in the ICH, the new pixel value replaces the similar value. In some implementations, the newly added value is placed at the most recently used position in the ICH. Without redundancy checking, the new value may be inserted into the ICH in addition to any potentially similar or identical entries. When the ICH is full and another value is inserted, the least recently used value may be removed. In some cases, multiple redundant values may be stored in an ICH that does not apply redundancy checking. While redundancy checking can improve coding efficiency by resulting in greater diversity of ICH entries and avoiding duplicate entries in the ICH, it may also add complexity to some implementations. In some embodiments, throughput of encoders and decoders may be improved by removing the redundancy checking from the ICH. In some embodiments without redundancy checking, predictively coded pixel values are inserted into the ICH as most recently used values. For each newly inserted value when the ICH is full the least recently used ICH entry is removed. In some examples, values already present in the ICH are not tested for being similar or identical to newly inserted values. ICH coded pixel values are values coded by referencing the ICH pixel values. In some embodiments, ICH coded pixel values are moved to the most recently used position in the ICH, and the ICH entries are re-ordered accordingly. No values in the ICH are removed in response to ICH coded pixel values.

In an example system able to decode or encode three pixels per clock, the ICH updates associated with a group of three pixels are performed during one clock cycle. In response to a group of three predictively coded pixels, the three pixel values are inserted into the most recently used positions of the ICH, the remaining ICH entries are shifted to correspondingly less recently used positions, and if the ICH is full the three least recently used values are removed. In response to a group of 3 ICH coded pixels, the one, two or three unique ICH entries used to code the pixels are moved to the most recently used positions of the ICH. The other values in the ICH may be shifted by zero, one, two or three positions accordingly towards the less recently used positions.

Some embodiments may be optimized for a throughput level of one group per clock cycle. In an example case, the group size is three pixels. However, concepts described herein may be extended to systems with more or less than one group per clock or larger or smaller group sizes.

In some embodiments, the encoder may make two decisions per group: (a) determine which candidate ICH entry to use for each pixel, and (b) determine whether to use ICH or P-mode coding for the current group. In some high-throughput implementations, these decisions may be made at a rate of one pair of decisions per clock cycle. Part of the determination of which ICH entries to use may be made in a clock cycle preceding the cycle where the final decisions are made. For example, making at least part of the ICH determination in a preceding clock cycle may be implemented in systems maintaining a throughput of one group of 3 pixels per clock. The selection of which ICH entry to use can be made based on a number of factors. In various implementations, the selected ICH entry may be the one with the lowest weighted component-wise SAD. For example, the luma absolute difference may be weighted more heavily than the chroma absolute difference. Ties may be broken by using the lowest of the ICH indices, e.g. closest to the most recently used position. Since the original pixels and most ICH values are known by the encoder before the cycle where the final decision is made, a partial result consisting of the current best ICH entry and corresponding weighted SAD can be computed during an earlier cycle. Once the pixel values are known for the previous group, the remaining SADs can be calculated and simple logic determines the correct ICH indices to code and how the ICH entries will be rearranged. Some encoder implementations may choose to include the weighted SADs for future original pixels within a temporary storage, for example the shift register, so that they can be rearranged in conjunction with their corresponding ICH entries.

Additionally or alternatively, the decision may be made based on a weighted SAD where the luma may have a different weighting than chroma. The SAD may be calculated for the original pixel minus the selected ICH entry value compared to the weighted SAD of the original pixel minus value that would result if P-mode were selected. Additionally or alternatively, the decision may be made based on some function of the maximum of the component-wise error among the pixels in the group. For example, a weighted sum of the ceil(log 2(maximum component-wise error)) for each mode may be computed and added to an estimated or actual number of bits for that mode. A decision may be made through a comparison of those quantities. In another example, a weighted sum of ceil(log 2(weighted SAD)) and the estimated number of bits for a mode may be computed to facilitate the decision. Reusing information that was determined in the course of performing the ICH selection can increase efficiency in parallel, low-cost implementations. In some embodiments, this decision may be applied to the entire group.

FIG. 25 shows an example ICH 4400 for a parallel decoder. A parallel decoder design may be used when, for example, P-mode redundancy removal is not implemented. In some embodiments, a shift register may include multiplexors 4452-4482 such that the entry 4401-4432 can be updated using any of the three previous entries. In FIG. 25, the labels E0 through E30 refer to ICH entry 0 through entry 30, respectively, and the labels R0, R1 and R2 refer to reconstructed pixel values of pixels coded or decoded in the order 0, 1 and 2, respectively. The label “LdEnab” refers to load enable. The decoder may have 32 ICH entries 4401-4432. The reconstructed pixel values R0-R2 from the current group may be either ICH or P-mode coded. In some implementations, a state machine may be used to determine which values to select for the multiplexors and the LdEnab signals for the entries. For example, a value of “true” may be indicated if the state of the entry should be changed.

In some embodiments, the reconstructed pixels R0-R2 for groups coded in P-mode are checked for redundancy or near-redundancy among the values of R0, R1 and R2. In some implementations, only non-redundant values, e.g. R2 and unique values of R0 and R1, are entered into the ICH.

In one or more embodiments, a set of entries in the ICH correspond with pixels from the line above (e.g., when the line above is available). This set of entries may be a set of the least recently used entries of the ICH. For example, entries 25 through 31 in an ICH with entries 0 through 31 may be configured to function as this set. The use of an ICH containing values from a previous line may be combined with the techniques and architectures described above. For example, in the ICH 4400 that has an ICH with 32 entries 4401-4432, the indices may point to reconstructed pixel values from the previous line when there is a previous line in the same slice as the current line. Various embodiments may use different numbers of pixels from the line above. For example, five pixels, e.g. the pixel above plus the two adjacent pixels on either side; or seven pixels, e.g. the pixel above plus the three adjacent pixels on either side. In some embodiments, the same set of three, five, or seven pixels from the line above are used for all pixels in one group. For example, if the group size is three, it may be desirable to use for the entire group of pixels above the center (2nd) pixel along with an equal number of adjacent pixels on either side.

Mid-Point Prediction

In some implementations, the predictor value is selected from a group including a normal predictor value and a MPP value. A normal predictor may be, for example, the LS predictor. In some embodiments, the MPP is selected when the magnitude of the quantized prediction residual using the normal predictor exceeds a threshold. The magnitude may be measured as the number of bits that would be required to represent a value using a number system, such as two's complement, an unsigned binary system, and/or other number systems. The threshold value may depend on a quantization level (QL). The threshold value may depend also on a bpc value. For example, bpc may be equal to 8 for 8 bpc YCbCr video. In some implementations, bpc may differ for luma and chroma. For example, the QL may range from 0 to the bpc value, and the QL may represent the value of a quantization divisor as 2 to the power QL e.g., 2^QL. For example, the threshold for selecting the MPP may be bpc−QL, where the threshold refers to a size in bits of a quantized residual, e.g., the number of bits that would be required to represent the prediction residual in a number system such as two's complement. For example, bpc may be equal to 8, QL may be equal to 4, the quantization divisor may be equal to 2^4=16, and the threshold may be equal to 4. The numerical examples provided are provided as a context for explaining predictor selection. In various implementations, other values may be used.

In the example, a quantized residual within the range of [−4,3] can be represented in two's complement using 3 bits, and a quantized residual less than −4 or greater than 3 may use at least 4 bits, in which case the MPP may be selected. With bpc=8 and QL=4, the range of potential prediction residuals using a normal predictor may range from −255 to 255, which would otherwise be quantized to −16 to 16. When the MPP is selected, the revised prediction residual used for coding the sample may be equal to the input sample value minus the MPP value. In an example, where bpc=8 and QL=4, the full range of potential prediction residuals ranges from approximately the complement of MPP value to 2^bpc-1-MPP value. For example, the MPP value may be 2″bpc/2 which equals 128, and the range of potential prediction residuals may range from −128 to +127, in this example. In an example where QL=4, the potential range of quantized residuals may be −128/16 to +127/16. In an example where these divisions are performed using truncation and there is no rounding applied, the potential range of quantized residuals may be represented by values ranging from −8 to +7, which may be coded using 4 bits in a two's complement number system. Additionally or alternatively the MPP value may not be equal to 2^bpc/2, and rounding may be used.

In an example with a suitable MPP value of 2^bpc/2, for bpc=8, 2^bpc/2=256/2=128. In some implementations, the MPP may be equal to 2^bpc/2 plus an offset value. For example, the offset may be equal to QL. For example, if bpc=8 and QL=0, MPP=128, if QL=1 MPP=129, if QL=2 MPP=130, and so on. In an example, the value of the offset may be based on a set of LSBs of a preceding coded sample. In some implementations, the number of LSBs used to produce the offset may be equal to the value of QL. For example, QL may be equal to 4, and a coded sample value preceding a current sample may have 4 LSBs equal to 0101 in base 2, which is equivalent to 5 in base 10, and the value of MPP may set to 2^bpc/2+5. In various implementations, the value of the offset may be a random and/or pseudo-random number. For example, the offset may be based on a set of LSBs of the bits representing the horizontal position of the sample within the image, with the bit positions of the LSBs reversed. The number of bits in the set of LSBs may be the value of QL. For example, QL may be equal to 4 and the horizontal position of a sample may be 519, such that the 4 LSBs of the horizontal position are 0111 in base 2. The bit-reversed value of these LSBs is 1110 in base 2, which is equal to 14 in base 10. Then the offset value may be equal to 14 in base 10.

Rate Control

In some embodiments, the long term (LT) component of RC is similar to the buffer model based control. The LT control may, for example, set minimum (minQP) and maximum (maxQP) QP values for each of a plurality of ranges of buffer model fullness. The LT control may, for example, set a value of a target number of bits that the RC algorithm attempts to produce for each group of pixels. In various embodiments, a short term (ST) component of RC may, for example, predict or estimate the activity of a group which may include a sample, a pixel, a group of pixels or a group of samples. The ST control may adjust the QP so that if the group has the predicted amount of activity then the quantized value or values will result in a number of bits that meet and/or approximate a target value. The target may be a value set by the LT control.

A prediction function to predict the activity of a group may be based on the activity levels of one or more previously coded groups. In one example, the predicted activity of a group may be determined using the minimum of the activity levels of the immediately preceding group and the group before the preceding group in the scan order. That is, predicted activity=MIN(activity[group−1], activity[group−2]). In various implementations, the scan order may include a raster scan, a boustrophedonic scan, a block-based scan, or other scan order. In another embodiment, the predicted activity may be set to the activity of the immediately preceding group in the scan order. In another embodiment, the predicted activity may be the MAP function of the activities of multiple groups preceding the current group in the scan order.

A QP value that results in a desired number of bits, for example to meet a target, may be determined in various ways. In some embodiments, a set of QP values is tested to find the smallest QP value that results in meeting a target number of bits, including an allowance for estimated coding overhead. In various embodiments, a QP value is selected based on a function of a predicted activity level and a number of bits per component. For certain forms of quantization, for example dividing by 2^QP, QP may be determined as QP=f[(predicted activity)−(target number of bits)], where f is a determined function. Such QP value determination may be utilized in combination with MPP prediction.

In implementations, an ICH may be incorporated in the QP selection. For example, one or more groups that could be used to produce a predicted activity level for a current group are coded in ICH mode. A new QP value may be determined by making an adjustment to a previous group's QP value. For example, when the group immediately preceding a current group in scan order is coded in ICH mode, the current group's QP value may be set to the previous group's QP value plus or minus an offset. For example, the QP of the current group may be set to the previous group's QP value minus 1.

In embodiments, a QP value determined via LT, ST or a combination of LT and ST functions may be treated as a baseline value and an adjustment to that baseline QP value may be coded in the bit stream. The adjustment may be a difference QP value, such as a specified increase, decrease or no change, with respect to the baseline QP value. A difference value may be coded using fixed length or variable length coding. An adjustment value may be conditionally coded. For example, an adjustment value may not be present in the bit stream, or it may be present in the bit stream. When there is no adjustment value in the bit stream, the baseline QP value can be used as the QP value for the respective group. When there is a code representing an adjustment value in the bit stream, the effective QP value may be the baseline QP value plus the adjustment value.

In embodiments, a baseline QP value may be replaced with a value that is conditionally coded in the bitstream.

In embodiments, the QP values that apply to luma and chroma components, or any component type, may differ. For example, the ST control may determine separate activity levels for luma and chroma, and separate QP values for luma and chroma may be determined. Target numbers of bits for luma and chroma may differ. For example, a LT component of a rate control function may produce different target numbers of bits for luma and chroma components. For example, such different target numbers may be based on the fullness of a buffer model, or on a bpc value.

In various embodiments, the rate control function may be designed to allocate bits to optimize picture quality, ensure that the rate buffer does not overflow or underflow, and ensure that each slice is coded using no more than the specified number of bits.

FIG. 26 shows example logic 4500 for performing variable look-up. The RC model fullness may be determined as a function of the modeled buffer fullness, a scale, and an offset (4502). The RC model fullness may be compared to some number of values and classified as being in a particular range. In some high-throughput implementations, the ranges may be specified using a few of the most-significant bits of the RC model fullness. The variables corresponding to a particular range (such as max QP or min QP, bits per group offset) can be determined using a look-up table indexed by one or more of the most significant bits of the RC model fullness (4504). Based on the determined variables, activity based adjustments may be made to the QP to generate a QP output (4506).

In some implementations, the circuit timing does not allow for the use of RC logic that calculates the QP value based on the variable look-up shown in FIG. 26 all in one clock cycle. However, the rate control function can be split up into a “short-term” part and a “long-term” part. FIG. 27 shows example logic 4600 for determining the short-term RC adjustments and determining long-term RC variable values. For the short-term RC, fine adjustments to the quantization parameter based on bit stream activity may be made such that the quantization parameter can be different for two neighboring groups (4606). For long-term RC, various values such as min QP, max QP, bits per group offset, and/or other values (4604), which are based on the range of the RC model fullness (4602), may be determined. The short-term RC may be performed in a single clock cycle using the min QP, max QP, bits per group offset, and/or other values from the previous group.

Conditional or Modified VLC Prefix

In various implementations, a prefix code in DSU-VLC may be omitted from the bit stream in some cases. When a unary code represents the maximum possible value, the last bit does not need to be sent. In some embodiments, when the predicted size of a unit is the largest size that is valid based on a bpc value and/or a QP value, the prefix is omitted. In some implementations, when a prefix is omitted, it is not present in the bit stream, and no bits are spent coding the prefix. This reduces the number of bits that are used to code a unit.

In various implementations, the predicted size of a DSU-VLC unit may be adjusted based on variations in the QP value. For example, if the QP that applies to a unit being coded exceeds that of a unit on which the coded unit's size prediction is based by a value of one or more, the predicted size of a DSU-VLC may be decreased by 1. If the QP that applies to a unit being coded is less than that of a unit on which the coded unit's size prediction is based by one or more, the predicted size of a DSU-VLC may be increased by 1. Such adjustments to the predicted size of a unit may have the effect of reducing the number of bits that are used to code a unit. Such adjustments may be subject to a minimum and/or maximum predicted size constraint.

Adaptive Chroma Decimation

Encoding and decoding may occur in a variety of formats, including but not limited to 10 bit YCbCr 4:2:2, 8 bit YCbCr 4:2:2, 10 bit YCbCr 4:4:4, 8 bit YCbCr 4:4:4, 8 bit ARGB 32, and 8 bit RGB 24.

In various implementations, the encoder 100 and/or decoder 200 may dynamically select different formats for coding according to various criteria. In some embodiments, a RGB input to an encoder 100 may be converted to either YCoCg 4:4:4 or 4:2:2. For YCoCg 4:4:4, the sample density of the Co and Cg chroma components may be the same as the sample density of the Y luma component. For YCoCg 4:2:2, the sample density of the Co and Cg chroma components in one dimension is half that of the Y luma component. In some embodiments, other color space definitions may be used, for example, YCbCr 4:4:4 and YCbCr 4:2:2. In an example, the encoder 100 converts 4:4:4 to 4:2:2 when 4:2:2 is selected, and the decoder 200 converts 4:2:2 to 4:4:4 when 4:2:2 is selected. In the example, the output of the decoder is 4:4:4 regardless of whether 4:2:2 or 4:4:4 is selected. In various embodiments, other sample densities may be used, for example YCbCr 4:2:0. For YCbCr 4:2:0, the sample density of the Cb and Cr chroma components in each of two dimensions is half that of the Y luma component. In various embodiments, an encoder may change the format selection within a picture. In various embodiments, a decoder may change the format selection within a picture. A picture may be one of a sequence of pictures in a video stream.

In various implementations, implicit selection may be used. For example, 4:2:2 may be selected automatically by both the encoder 100 and decoder 200 based on the values of one or more variables indicating the state of the decoding algorithm decoding a bit stream, or based on the state of the encoding algorithm encoding a bit stream. Implicit selection may be performed without the presence of bits or syntax elements in the bit stream indicating the state of the selection. For example, a selection may be made between 4:2:2 and 4:4:4 for each group of pixels. Implicit and/or partially implicit selection schemes may use information available at the decoder to determine the coding mode. The encoder may not include a syntax element within the bitstream to signal the coding mode for an implicitly selected mode. Implicit information may include any information other than syntax elements within the bitstream that are used to explicitly signal the coding mode. For example, implicit information may include a history of syntax element values, syntax elements used to signal non-coding mode selections, a quantization parameter, a buffer model fullness, or other information that may be available to a decoder. In an example, 4:2:2 may be implicitly selected for groups where a buffer model fullness parameter exceeds a pre-determined threshold. In an example, 4:2:2 may be implicitly selected when a parameter such as a QP value exceeds a threshold. In some implementations, 4:4:4 may be implicitly selected when a parameter such as a QP value drops below a threshold, or a buffer model fullness drops below a threshold. The criteria and/or threshold(s) to switch from 4:4:4 to 4:2:2 coding and from 4:2:2 to 4:4:4 coding may be different. In various implementations, 4:2:0, 4:2:2 and 4:4:4 may be selected by the encoder and decoder, based on the values of one or more variables indicating the state of the decoding algorithm decoding a bit stream, or based on the state of the encoding algorithm encoding a bit stream. In some implementations, the coding mode may be selected based on the input stream or an encoding variable. For example, basing the selected mode on the input stream may include determining a distortion level associated with the input stream. The distortion level may include a measure of the error introduced by the encoding process. In various implementations, the error may be a quantization error, an error in an ICH mode, or other error type. An encoding variable may include a quantization parameter, a bit budget, a buffer model fullness, a parameter range or other encoding variable.

In some implementations, conversion of 4:4:4 to 4:2:2 in an encoder 100 may be performed in part using a filter, such as a decimation filter. The decimation filter may receive a set of horizontally contiguous chroma sample values as inputs. For example, a 4:2:2 chroma sample value may be determined using a multi-tap finite impulse response (FIR) filter. In an example, the FIR filter may be a 3-tap finite input response (FIR) filter with coefficients [¼, ½, ¼]. In another example decimation filtering may use a 3-tap FIR filter with coefficients [⅛, ¾, ⅛]. In another example decimation filtering may use a 5-tap FIR filter with coefficients [ 1/16, 4/16, 6/16, 4/16, 1/16].

In various implementations, conversion of 4:2:2 to 4:4:4 in a decoder may utilize an interpolation filter which takes as input a set of horizontally contiguous chroma sample values in 4:2:2 format. For example, a 4:4:4 chroma sample that is not one of the samples in the 4:2:2 format may be determined using a 2-tap FIR filter with coefficients [½, ½], where the inputs to the FIR filter are chroma sample values that are available.

In some embodiments, an ICH may be used in conjunction with the 4:2:2 format. In some implementations, ICH coding mode may be indicated in the bit stream via a specific code value, for example an escape code. For example, ICH coding may be indicated for a group via the use of an escape code. When 4:2:2 has been selected implicitly and ICH mode is also selected for a group, the pixels of the group may be coded in ICH mode. Since the components, e.g., including chroma, of the pixels in the group are coded via ICH, those pixels may be treated as 4:4:4 format pixels. A decoder may interpolate chroma samples not present in the 4:2:2 format using interpolation where at least one input to an interpolation filter is an ICH coded value. In some embodiments, a decoder may decode a group of pixels that is predictively coded using 4:2:2 format, convert the decoded pixels to 4:4:4 format and enter the resulting values into an ICH. In some embodiments, a decoder may decode a group of pixels that is predictively coded using 4:2:2 format, and enter decoded luma values and corresponding chroma values into an ICH.

In some implementations, a syntax element in the bit stream may indicate the use of 4:4:4 sampling to override an implicit selection of 4:2:2. The presence and/or definition of a syntax element in the bit stream may be conditional on the implicit selection of 4:2:2. For example, a value of a syntax element may have one definition for groups where 4:2:2 is implicitly selected and a different definition for groups where 4:2:2 is implicitly not selected. For example, an ICH mode may be selected via one escape code definition when 4:2:2 is not implicitly selected, and an escape code may have a modified definition that enables selection of either ICH mode or 4:4:4 format when 4:2:2 is implicitly selected. For example, there may be a specific bit in the syntax that follows an escape code when 4:2:2 format is implicitly selected, and this bit may not exist in the syntax when the 4:2:2 is not implicitly selected. In an example where the bit is defined to exist, one value of the bit (e.g. 0) may indicate that ICH mode is selected, and the other value of the bit (e.g. 1) may indicate the 4:4:4 format is selected. In another embodiment, an escape code may be conditionally followed by a plurality of bits, where various values of the bits or combination of bits may have additional meanings. For example, one or more such bits may indicate an adjustment to a baseline QP value. In an example, a set of bits may control an adjustment to a baseline QP value, and/or override of an implicit selection of 4:2:2 and ICH mode. In some embodiments, a syntax element in the bit stream may indicate the format explicitly, and implicit selection may not be used. The syntax element may signal a change of format within a picture.

In some implementations, when an implicit selection of the 4:2:2 format is made, a baseline QP value may be reduced by a specified amount, for example by 1 or 2.

In various implementations, an activity measure of a group of pixels may utilize a weighted sum of chroma samples. For example, a group may have 3 pixels, and the alignment of chroma samples in 4:2:2 format with groups may result in chroma samples present for the 1st and 3rd pixels of a group, or the 2nd pixel of a group. There may be 3 luma samples per group. For example, an activity measure of a group with chroma samples present for the 1st and 3rd pixels may be 2 times the size of the chroma samples for the 1st pixel plus the size of the chroma samples for the 3rd pixel. In the example, an activity measure of a group with chroma samples present for the 2nd pixel may be 2 times the size of the chroma samples for the 2nd pixel plus the size of the chroma samples for the 3rd pixel of the previous group.

In some implementations, an encoder may select the 4:4:4 format or ICH mode once it has already selected 4:2:2 mode. For example for groups of pixels, the encoder may select ICH mode for the group if the use of ICH mode for that group would result in components of the pixels in the group having errors less than or equal to a maximum quantization error associated with a current QP value. If ICH is not selected for the group, the encoder may determine whether for at least one of the chroma components the absolute difference between a pixel and its left neighbor and the absolute difference between that pixel and its right neighbor are both greater than a threshold. For example, the threshold may be a predetermined or maximum quantization error associated with a current QP value. In the example, if at least one chroma component for at least one pixel in the group meets the absolute difference condition discussed above, the encoder may select 4:4:4 for the group. However, other selection criteria for ICH mode and/or the 4:4:4 format may be used. In some implementations, different unit groupings for 4:2:2 may be used. For example, two 3-sample units of three Y samples per unit, one unit of 3 Cb samples and one unit of 3 Cr samples that represent an enlarged group of 6 pixels may be used. Additionally or alternatively, other groupings may be implemented.

Block Prediction

In various implementations, block prediction uses one or more pixels ahead of the current pixel in the scan order as a predictor for the current pixel. This may be helpful for content that is repetitive and high in detail. The block prediction may include two pieces: a block prediction search and a block prediction selection. Block prediction predicts the current sample based on a predictor which is ahead of the current sample in the scan order. For example, in a raster scan the predictor may be to the left of the current sample on the same line. The relative position may be specified as a one-dimensional vector within the same line of samples, and might range from −2 to −17 in an example implementation.

In various embodiments, the search to find the best vector is performed on the previous line of samples, rather than the line that is currently being coded. This may simplify hardware implementation and circuit timing, for example in cases where the (−2) vector is included in the search set. An example block search compares a set of eight consecutive samples with set of 8 reference samples corresponding to various potential vectors with values ranging from −2 to −17. The current samples and the reference samples being compared are in the same scan line, e.g. the line above the line of the sample to be coded. For each vector considered, a SAD (sum of absolute differences) may be calculated over the eight samples in the current and the eight samples in the reference set. In the example, the vector with the lowest SAD value is selected. In cases of ties, the vector closest to 0 is selected. The SAD might be weighted; for example, a luma absolute difference might be weighted more than a chroma absolute difference.

A vector, once selected, applies to some number of adjacent samples, referred to as a prediction block. In an example implementation, the prediction block size is 2×1. Therefore, the block search may be performed once per 2 samples.

For high-throughput, in some embodiments, the prediction block size may be greater than or equal to the throughput in pixels per clock cycle. In an example where three pixels per clock cycle are targeted, it may be desirable to use a prediction block size of 3×1. In this scenario, the SAD may be calculated over nine consecutive samples. This may simplify implementations where a single block prediction vector can be generated every clock cycle.

It may simplify various implementations to use a block prediction minimum vector such that pixels resulting from decoding in the previous clock cycle or earlier clock cycles are utilized. For example, a block prediction vector may range from −3 to −18 in a system that decodes three pixels per clock cycle. The −1 vector used for normalization may still implement the techniques and architectures described in the “Prediction loop” section above, for example.

In some implementations, a decision of whether to use block prediction or another prediction method may be based in part on an estimate of the relative coding costs of using block prediction or the another prediction method. For example, a second candidate prediction method for comparison may be MAP. The estimate of the coding cost of using MAP, for purposes of selecting block prediction or MAP, may be based on predicting a sample from a previous pixel in the scan order, rather than being based on the MAP predictor.

In various implementations, block prediction may not be selected for use with a pixel unless there is at least a determined amount of image activity in the vicinity of the pixel. In some embodiments, the absolute difference of luma and/or chroma values between horizontally adjacent pixels may be compared to a threshold. If the absolute difference does not exceed the threshold for one pixel, a counter may be incremented. If the absolute difference exceeds the threshold, the counter may be reset to 0. When the counter value is less than a second threshold, block prediction may be permitted, and if the counter value is greater than or equal to the second threshold, block prediction may not be used. The image activity threshold determination may be implemented using the following example pseudocode:

/* A decision is made whether to use block prediction for the pixels: */ If(left adjacent luma absdiff <= 32)  LAST_EDGE_COUNT++; Else  LAST_EDGE_COUNT = 0; If((BP_COUNT  >=  3)  &&  (LAST_EDGE_COUNT  <  8))   /* Use block prediction */

In this pseudo-code, “BP_COUNT>=3” may refer to a test for block prediction being the optimal predictor over some number of previous pixels or samples before selecting block prediction as the predictor.

Various implementations may use differential pulse code modulation (DPCM) and apply a median-adaptive predictor (MAP) to at least a subset of the samples in an image to improve compression efficiency. An implementation of such a scheme in conventional hardware may use a clock speed equal to the number of pixels per second processed per instance. Techniques to increase the number of pixels that can be processed per clock cycle (referred to as “throughput”) in different implementations are described herein. These techniques can be applied to the encoder, decoder, or both, depending on the system being designed.

One way to increase throughput is to divide the images into vertical stripes and use a decoder instance per vertical stripe. In this case, the logic complexity typically increases with the number of instances, and the memory size may increase somewhat.

In some embodiments, techniques to increase the throughput for a single decoder or encoder instance may be combined with parallel processing of multiple instances. Prediction loops (in some encoders and decoders) for each pixel may depend on the reconstructed value of the previous pixel.

Prediction Loop

In various DPCM schemes, the predicted value for each pixel may depend on the reconstructed value of the pixel immediately preceding the current pixel in the scan order. In some implementations, to allow for time to complete operations to predict a pixel over an interval of two or three clock cycles, the pixel two positions previous in the scan order may be used. Positions previous in the scan order may be referred to as ahead or earlier. Using pixels farther ahead in the scan order, for example two or three pixels ahead of the current pixel, may enable multiple prediction loops to operate substantially in parallel and increase throughput. This may be advantageous in systems where the complexity of the circuitry utilized in a prediction loop is low enough to enable one prediction loop operation per clock cycle.

In an example scenario, pixel x of FIG. 5 is the target of a prediction. For illustrative purposes, the following describes a scheme where the pixel throughput is three pixels per clock cycle and a raster scan order is used. However, the scheme may be extended to do any other number of pixels per clock cycle and scan orders. In this example scenario, the group size is also three pixels.

For median-adaptive predictions (MAP) in a decoder, the quantized residuals may be assumed to be available for the three pixels of a group. The residuals are labeled R0, R1, and R2. This assumption may apply when the pixel reconstruction is decoupled from the entropy coding and rate control. The three predicted pixel values are defined in the group as P0, P1, and P2. Referring to the sample positions in FIG. 5, the predictions are:

-   -   P0=CLAMP(a+b−c, MIN(a,b), MAX(a,b));     -   P1=CLAMP(f−g+R0+b, MIN(f,c,b), MAX(f,c,b));     -   P2=CLAMP(r−s+R0+R1+b, MIN(r,g,c,b), MAX(r,g,c,b));

The embodiments may be extended to more or fewer pixels per clock cycle if needed. For example, if four pixels per clock cycle were needed, P3 could be derived as:

-   -   P3=CLAMP(t−k+R0+R1+R2+b, MIN(k, s, g, c, b), MAX(k, s, g, c,         b));

Although this example assumes that the group size is equal to the desired throughput, this is not necessary—larger and smaller group sizes are possible. The scenario may be adapted to other group sizes by using the correct residuals for the group size (e.g., the inverse quantization was done using the correct factor) in the equations.

Some of the terms in the equations may be determined in advance because they may only depend on information in the previous line. Therefore, some calculations on which the predictions are based may be performed in advance of the clock cycle when a group of predictions are formed and combined with de-quantized residuals. These advance calculations may not affect the overall throughput.

Additionally or alternatively, this concept can be applied for left predictions:

-   -   P0=a;     -   P1=CLAMP(f+R0, MIN(f,c,b), MAX(f,c,b));     -   P2=CLAMP(r+R0+R1, MIN(r,g,c,b), MAX(r,g,c,b));

Alternatively or additionally, the P1 and P2 values may be clamped to between 0 and the maximum possible component value.

Memory Usage in a Multi-Slice Architecture

In some implementations, encoder and/or decoder throughput may be increased by defining several slices per line. The slices may be of equal width or approximately equal width. For example, the width of the slices may be allowed to differ within a determined amount, e.g., an allowed deviation from average/median width, a predetermined range, or other distribution of widths. In some embodiments, the slices widths may be selected to balance the workloads associated with decoding the slices of the different widths. This may be optimal for ensuring balanced hardware usage in parallel systems. In some implementations, two slice widths may be used for the slices in a line. For example, a line may include 7 slices, which have two different slice widths among the 7 slices. Additionally or alternatively, the difference between slice widths within a line may not be greater than the number of slices per line. FIG. 28 shows example slice timing logic 4100. In this example, a decoder decodes four transmitted slices 4112, 4114, 4116, 4118 in parallel for one line in accord with the transmission timing 4110. A decoding instance may take one full line time to decode one line of one slice which is one fourth of a line. The decoding of a line of a slice may complete in time to display the last pixel of the slice. The start times of the decoding operations 4132, 4134, 4136, 4138 of the slices are each one line period earlier than the completion of decoding operations 4132, 4134, 4136, 4138 respectively of the slices. In the slice decoding operations 4132, 4134, 4136, 4138, pixels are stored as they are decoded until it is time to begin displaying the slices 4122, 4124, 4126, 4128 in accord with the display timing 4120 of the slices. In this example, the storage space used may be that of ¾ of a slice width per slice decoding instance. The compressed data for the four slices is delivered by the transport as one slice line's worth of compressed bits per the period associated with one line of one slice, e.g., per one-fourth of a line period. The start of decoding of a slice is delayed by an initial rate buffer delay 4150. This rate buffer delay process is similar to decoding one slice at a time without parallel decoding, although the amount of initial delay may be increased in some embodiments.

The same principle may be applied to almost any number of slices per line: 2, 8, or any value appropriate for the application in which the decoding process is used. The amount of decoded pixel storage used varies with the number of slices decoded in parallel. For example, with parallel decoding of 2 slices per line, the 2 decoding sub-instances may use storage for ½ slice width of decoded pixels to align the decoding time with the display time. For N slices, storage for (N−1)/N of a slice may be used.

Dividing the scan into slices may enable the use of parallel encoders and/or decoders. However, the slices can still be encoded and decoded using a single instance or a smaller number of instances. That is, slices may be processed all in parallel, sequentially, or with a combination of parallel and sequential processing. Parallelism can be utilized on the encoder side, the decoder side, or both.

In various encoder implementations, a slice in a line may be encoded using an encoder instance running at a slower clock rate than the video pixel rate. The encoder instances may process at a rate of one or more pixels per clock cycle. In some implementations, the encoder system may use a buffer containing uncompressed samples to convert a raster-order (or other scan order) pixel stream to multiple fractional-rate pixel streams. The encoder system may use a buffer containing compressed bits to produce the compressed bits in the slice order. This compressed bits buffer may be implemented by enlarging the size of the existing rate buffers. This compressed bits buffer may be shared between the encoder instances using control hardware to reduce the total additional buffer size used.

In some decoder implementations, the slices in a line may be decoded using a decoder instance that is running at a slower clock rate than the video pixel rate. The decoder instances may process at a rate of one or more pixels per clock cycle. The decoder system may use a buffer containing uncompressed samples to convert multiple fractional-rate pixel streams to a raster-order (or other scan order) pixel stream. The decoder system may use a buffer to hold compressed bits to prevent the input buffers of the decoder instances from overflowing. The compressed bits buffer may be implemented by enlarging the rate buffers. The compressed bits buffer may be shared between the decoder instances using control hardware. This buffer sharing may reduce the total additional buffer size used.

In various implementations, encoders and decoders that use median-adaptive prediction (MAP) may use a buffer containing reconstructed pixels from the previous line for the prediction. In a system with a plurality of decoding engines operating in parallel, buffers containing reconstructed pixels may be used for both prediction and for temporary storage of reconstructed pixels. While the reconstructed pixels are temporarily stored, the fractional parallel decoder instances may be ordered for a raster scan (or other scan type) at the full pixel rate. FIG. 29 shows example logic circuitry 4200 for reading a line storage buffer. For example, four slice decoders 4212, 4124, 4216, 4218 may operate in parallel to decode portions of a scan line. As the four decoders 4212, 4124, 4216, 4218 decode one line (e.g. line number N), the decoders 4212, 4124, 4216, 4218 may place the decoded pixels of line N into respective line storage buffers 4222, 4224, 4226, 4228, and substantially concurrently read vertically co-located pixels from line N−1 from the respective line storage buffers 4222, 4224, 4226, 4228. When decoding the first line of a picture or of a slice, the previous line N−1 may not be available for reading. The slice storage buffers 4222, 4224, 4226, 4228 may be implemented such that pixels in a complete scan line N may be read from the line storage buffers 4222, 4224, 4226, 4228 to produce an output for display of the entire line. In various embodiments, the line storage buffers 4222, 4224, 4226, 4228 for the slice decoders 4212, 4124, 4216, 4218 are portions of one large line storage buffer which can store a complete scan line. In some implementations, a complete scan line may be read from the large line storage buffer in parallel to drive signals which may be used to drive columns of a display. The pixel reorder block 4230 can read out the line storage units in a predetermined order, such as sequentially, starting at the display start time.

Entropy Decoding Throughput

In some implementations, DSU-VLC may be implemented at a throughput of one pixel/clock. In various implementations, decoding may be implemented at two or more pixels per clock cycle without reorganizing the bitstream. Additionally or alternatively, some bitstream reordering may be implemented to improve decoding throughput.

For example, multiple prefixes may be grouped together. FIG. 30 shows an example bitstream reordering 4300 based on the prefixes within the bitstream. A bitstream 4300 may be reordered such that the prefixes 4302, 4304, 4306 precede the residual data 4312, 4314, 4316.

The block of prefixes may be simultaneously decoded by the decoder (e.g. 106, or other decoders). In some cases, the decoder may indicate how many residual bits are to be shifted before starting to decode the next prefix block during the next clock cycle. The decoder may determine the location of the first bit of the next prefix block based on the value of the current prefix block, without depending on the values of the current residual bits. The prefixes may be coded via VLC. For example, the prefixes may be coded via a unary code VLC. Concatenated variable length prefixes may be decoded in one clock cycle. In an example, for a set of prefixes in which 0 or more ‘0’ bits are followed by a single ‘1’ bit, the number of ‘0’ bits in the prefixes is bounded by a pre-determined value. In the example, the decoder may count the number of ‘0’ bits that precede the first ‘1’ bit, count the number of ‘0’ bits following the first ‘1’ bit that precede the second ‘1’ bit, and count the number of ‘0’ bits following the second ‘1’ bit that precede the third ‘1’ bit. These numbers of bits may be added to the predicted unit sizes to produce the numbers of bits occupied by the respective residual data portions. The result of these operations is sufficient to determine the total number of bits associated with the groups of data. The result may enable a decoder to proceed to decode the next set of three groups of data. The operations associated with decoding one set (e.g., two, three, or other number of groups of data) may be implemented in one clock cycle.

In some implementations, entropy decoding may utilize multiplexing of portions of a compressed data stream for transmission and demultiplexing. In various multiplexing schemes, the bitstream may be divided into packets. In some implementations, the packets may be of fixed length. The packets may correspond to a particular portion of the data. A portion may be referred to as a substream, for example, data for a single component. In one or more explicit multiplexing schemes, substreams may be partitioned into packets of equal size, with the packet having short headers that indicate which substream the packets' bits are associated with. For example, there may be 2 sub-streams and the headers may comprise 1 bit per header. For example, there may be 4 sub-streams and the headers may comprise 2 bits per header. A decoder may demultiplex the packets and extract their payloads. A decoder may include a number of entropy decoders operating in parallel, where the individual entropy decoders decode one or more sub-streams. In various implicit multiplexing schemes, there may be rules for multiplexing a plurality of sub-streams and rules for demultiplexing the sub-streams. In some implementations, the rules may allow multiplexed packets to omit their headers and the decoder can deduce, via the rules, which packets belong to which sub-stream. Techniques and architectures for omission of headers and decoder deduction are discussed in co-owned and co-pending application Ser. No. 13/158,061 filed 10 Jun. 2011 and title Method and System for Zero Overhead Parallel Entropy Decoding, which has been previously incorporated by reference in its entirety.

In some embodiments, component data may be organized into one or more unique sub-streams. In various embodiments, the coded information that is not specific to a particular component (for example, flatness indication) may be treated as a separate sub-stream. For example, there may be 4 sub-streams: Y, Co, Cg, and other data. In an example, the coded information may be divided into 6 sub-streams: Y prefixes, Co prefixes, Cg prefixes, Y residuals, Co residuals, and Cg residuals. In various embodiments, coded information that is not specific to a particular component may be packaged in the same sub-stream as a component, for example Y.

In various multiplexing schemes, it may be advantageous to define both a minimum and maximum data rate (e.g. to reduce FIFO sizes). The minimum data rate can be enforced through stuffing arbitrary data. In some implementations, the decoder can automatically infer which bits are stuffing bits. The minimum and maximum data rates may be enforced over multiple syntax elements to reduce overhead.

The methods, devices, processing, and logic described above may be implemented in many different ways and in many different combinations of hardware and software. For example, all or parts of the implementations may be circuitry that includes an instruction processor, such as a Central Processing Unit (CPU), microcontroller, or a microprocessor; an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), Programmable Logic Device (PLD), or Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA); or circuitry that includes discrete logic or other circuit components, including analog circuit components, digital circuit components or both; or any combination thereof. The circuitry may include discrete interconnected hardware components and/or may be combined on a single integrated circuit die, distributed among multiple integrated circuit dies, or implemented in a Multiple Chip Module (MCM) of multiple integrated circuit dies in a common package, as examples.

The circuitry may further include or access instructions for execution by the circuitry. The instructions may be stored in a tangible storage medium that is other than a transitory signal, such as a flash memory, a Random Access Memory (RAM), a Read Only Memory (ROM), an Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EPROM); or on a magnetic or optical disc, such as a Compact Disc Read Only Memory (CDROM), Hard Disk Drive (HDD), or other magnetic or optical disk; or in or on another machine-readable medium. A product, such as a computer program product, may include a storage medium and instructions stored in or on the medium, and the instructions when executed by the circuitry in a device may cause the device to implement any of the processing described above or illustrated in the drawings.

The implementations may be distributed as circuitry among multiple system components, such as among multiple processors and memories, optionally including multiple distributed processing systems. Parameters, databases, and other data structures may be separately stored and managed, may be incorporated into a single memory or database, may be logically and physically organized in many different ways, and may be implemented in many different ways, including as data structures such as linked lists, hash tables, arrays, records, objects, or implicit storage mechanisms. Programs may be parts (e.g., subroutines) of a single program, separate programs, distributed across several memories and processors, or implemented in many different ways, such as in a library, such as a shared library (e.g., a Dynamic Link Library (DLL)). The DLL, for example, may store instructions that perform any of the processing described above or illustrated in the drawings, when executed by the circuitry.

Various implementations have been specifically described. However, many other implementations are also possible. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A method, comprising: receiving an input stream comprising a picture; encoding a first group of pixels from the picture using a first format to generate a first output, the first format comprising a first chroma sampling density; for a second group of pixels from the picture, determining whether a first difference between chroma values for a current pixel of the second group and a first neighbor pixel of the current pixel exceeds a difference threshold; determining whether a second difference between chroma values for the current pixel of the second group and a second neighbor pixel of the current pixel exceeds the difference threshold, the first and second neighbor pixels positioned on opposing sides of the current pixel; responsive to determining that the first and second differences both exceed the difference threshold, determining to encode the second group of pixels from the picture using a second format, the second format comprising a second chroma sampling density different from the first chroma sampling density; encoding the second group to generate a second output, wherein encoding the first or second group of pixels comprises: determining a quantization threshold for a magnitude of a quantized prediction residual responsive to a quantization parameter, determining the magnitude of the quantized prediction residual responsive to a first predictor, the magnitude corresponding to a number of bits required to represent the quantized prediction residual, and implementing a mid-point predictor for one or more of the first and second pixel groups in response to the magnitude exceeding the quantization threshold; and transmitting the first and second outputs.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising applying a filter to chroma components of the first group and reducing the chroma sampling density of the first output.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein applying the filter comprises using one or more of the pixels of the first group as an input to a finite impulse response filter.
 4. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining to assert an index color history mode for a third group of pixels from the picture; and transmitting a syntax element indicating assertion of the index color history mode.
 5. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting a syntax element to indicate selection of the first format.
 6. The method of claim 5, wherein the syntax element is configured to override implicit selection of the second format.
 7. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting a syntax element to indicate selection of the second format.
 8. The method of claim 7, wherein the syntax element is configured to override implicit selection of the first format.
 9. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining that the second format comprises an implicitly selected format, the implicit selection comprises applying a selection rule.
 10. The method of claim 1, defining a syntax element to allow selection from among: implicit selection of the first format, selection of the second format, and assertion of an index color history mode.
 11. The method of claim 1, wherein the second chroma sampling density is greater than the first chroma sampling density.
 12. A device, comprising: input interface circuitry configured to receive an input stream comprising a picture; coding circuitry configured to: sample a first portion of the picture associated with a first pixel group; encode the first pixel group using a first format comprising a first chroma sampling density; sample a second portion of the picture associated with a second pixel group; determine whether a first absolute difference between chroma values for a current pixel of the second pixel group and a first neighbor pixel of the current pixel exceeds a difference threshold; determine whether a second absolute difference between chroma values for the current pixel of the second pixel group and a second neighbor pixel of the current pixel exceeds the difference threshold, the first and second neighbor pixels positioned on opposing sides of the current pixel; responsive to determining that the first and second absolute differences both exceed the difference threshold, select a second format for encoding the second pixel group, the second format comprising a second chroma sampling density different from the first chroma sampling density; encode the second pixel group using the second format, wherein encoding the first or second group of pixels comprises: determining a quantization threshold for a magnitude of a quantized prediction residual responsive to a quantization parameter, determining the magnitude of the quantized prediction residual responsive to a first predictor, the magnitude corresponding to a number of bits required to represent the quantized prediction residual, and implementing a mid-point predictor for one or more of the first and second pixel groups in response to the magnitude exceeding the quantization threshold; and output interface circuitry configured to transmit a bitstream comprising the first pixel group and the second pixel group.
 13. The device of claim 12, wherein the circuitry is further configured to: based on a quantization parameter, determine a quantization threshold for a magnitude of a quantized prediction residual; based on a first predictor, determine the magnitude of the quantized prediction residual; and when the magnitude exceeds the quantization threshold, implement a mid-point predictor for one or more of the first and second pixel groups.
 14. The device of claim 12, wherein the circuitry is configured to: apply a finite impulse response filter to chroma components of the first portion; and downsample the chroma components of the first portion to generate the first pixel group.
 15. A method, comprising: receiving a bitstream comprising a picture, at decoder circuitry; selecting a first format for decoding, the first format having a first chroma sampling density; responsive to selecting the first format, decoding a first group of pixels of the picture using the first format; for a second group of pixels from the picture, determining whether a first difference between chroma values for a current pixel of the second group and a first neighbor pixel of the current pixel exceeds a difference threshold; determining whether a second difference between chroma values for the current pixel of the second group and a second neighbor pixel of the current pixel exceeds the difference threshold, the first and second neighbor pixels positioned on opposing sides of the current pixel; responsive to determining that the first and second differences both exceed the difference threshold, selecting a second format, the second format comprising a second chroma sampling density different from the first chroma sampling density; and responsive to selecting the second format, decoding the second group of pixels using the second format, the decoding comprising: determining a quantization threshold for a magnitude of a quantized prediction residual responsive to a quantization parameter, determining the magnitude of the quantized prediction residual responsive to a first predictor, the magnitude corresponding to a number of bits required to represent the quantized prediction residual, and implementing a mid-point predictor for one or more of the first and second pixel groups in response to the magnitude exceeding the quantization threshold.
 16. The method of claim 15, further comprising: after decoding the second group, generating a first output in the second format using the second group; and after decoding the first group, applying interpolation to the first group to generate a second output in the second format.
 17. The method of claim 15, wherein selecting the second format comprises implicitly selecting the first format based on a state of a decoding variable.
 18. The method of claim 15, further comprising selecting an index color history mode for a third group of pixels responsive to a syntax element in the bitstream.
 19. The method of claim 18, wherein selecting the index color history mode for the third group of pixels comprises overriding an implicit format selection for the third group of pixels. 